Co-operative Nordic Research

This report has a two-fold objective. -To identify the changing risk management needs in the private and public sectors and the corresponding needs for development of risk analysis methods and related practices. -To list examples of projects where Nordic co-operation between industry, authorities and universities can be effective for increasing the contribution of risk management to industrial growth and a sustainable society. A Nordic expert group, funded by the Nordic Industrial Fund, identified the urgent need for co-operative Nordic risk management research and suggested a structure for co-operation and cross-disciplinary research and for dissemination of knowledge and implementation. The group also specified research areas and project ideas for future development into actual research projects. A workshop with participants from the Nordic countries was one source of ideas. The expert group in addition identified a number of basic resource areas necessary for the development of more efficient risk management industry and which would benefit from Nordic co-operation. A Nordic risk management academy and a Nordic risk management network should be formed. Also a Nordic graduate school on safety and risk management for PhD students should be organized on a Nordic basis in order to ensure competence at all Institutes of Technology, all Business Schools and other education bodies of importance for risk management

Contents

1.1 This report and study

Analysis of Results from Event Investigations in Industrial and Patient Safety Contexts

Accident investigations are probably the most common approach to evaluate the safety of systems. The aim of this study is to analyse event investigations and especially their recommendations for safety reforms. Investigation reports were studied with a methodology based on the characterisation of organisational levels and types of recommendations. Three sets of event investigations from industrial companies and hospitals were analysed. Two sets employed an in-depth approach, while the third was based on the root-cause concept. The in-depth approach functioned in a similar way for both industrial organisations and hospitals. The number of suggested reforms varied between 56 and 143 and was clearly greater for the industry. Two sets were from health care, but with different methodologies. The number of suggestions was eight times higher with the in-depth approach, which also addressed higher levels in the organisational hierarchy and more often safety management issues. The root-cause investigations had a clear emphasis on reforms at the local level and improvement of production. The results indicate a clear need for improvements of event investigations in the health care sector, for which some suggestions are presented

Assessing safety functions – results from a case study at an industrial workplace

This study is concerned with how safety characteristics at industrial installations can be modelled and evaluated. The starting point was the concept of safety function, which is defined as a technical, organisational or combined function that can reduce the probability and/or consequences of accidents and other unwanted events in a system. A tentative theoretical framework has been developed, which has been applied in a new method called Safety Function Analysis. A workplace in process industry was analysed in the form of a case study. One result of the application was a model of safety functions in the workplace, including 54 functions. These have been evaluated, and system improvements have been proposed. A detailed comparison was made with the results of two other methods for safety analysis— Deviation and Energy analysis—applied to the same workplace. Safety function analysis gave essential supplementary information, and especially supported improvement of management issues, both formal and informal. It is concluded that the safety function concept worked well in the practical analysis of safety in the studied system. There is a need for further improvement of the theoretical framework, and of the method.

Institute for Risk Management and Safety Analysis,

The study is focused on how to model and assess safety at industrial installations. A starting point was the concept of safety function, which is defined as a technical, organisational or combined function, which can reduce the probability and/or consequences of a set of hazards in a specific system. A tentative theoretical framework has been developed. In a case study, a workplace at a process industry was analysed. A number of safety functions were identified and characterised according to the frame-work. The efficiency of these safety functions was assessed, and a few different approaches were tried in this evaluation. A conclusion was that the safety function concept worked well in the practical analysis of the safety in the studied system. It was also clear that there is a need for further improvement of the theoretical framework, and a number of ideas came up during the case study.