Sustaining safety and reliability performance continues to be a challenge.
For a long time, people were saying that most accidents were due to human error and this is true in a sense but it’s not very helpful.
It’s a bit like saying that falls are due to gravity.
It’s a bit like saying that falls are due to gravity.
Trevor Kletz
"Founding father" of process safety
Risk is a perception and so is value
Even with data available for decision making, people make decisions based on their personal bias.
Safety and reliability - how to reduce failures
In making decisions around reducing asset failures, you realize all your worries are in the future but all the data is in the past.
srs' risk principles
Risks are opportunities
My favorite definition of risk comes from a fortune cookie. In Mandarin, risk or crisis is represented by two words: Danger and Opportunity. Every downside has an upside.
Quantifying risks is not the same as reducing risks
In quantifying risks from failures, you invariably rely on mathematical models. You truly need to understand the risk drivers to make a sound decision.
Every risk (or value) will be judged by narrative
It is easy to get lost in numbers and data, particularly today. Decision making and particularly, risk-based decision-making, is lot more complex and remains a human process influenced by emotions and biases.
Think systems
It is not how that last maintainable part fails but how the various sub-systems interact leading to system failure.
Think bottom up
Working on process safety leading indicators, predictive maintenance, human performance, asset integrity. Think in terms of causal factors and take a bottom-up approach.
You can never have zero risks
There will always be struggle to allocate resources and your view of risk will really begin to matter. Prioritize prevention over mitigaiton.
