Example for creating, reviewing, and completing complex risk assessments
To maintain worker and plant safety, Company ABC creates risk assessments. A risk assessment identifies the potential hazards at a plant, and evaluates the risks that are associated with those hazards. The personnel who are responsible for carrying out the tasks of the risk assessment are also identified. Complex risk assessments might be reviewed and approved multiple times because of the high risks that might be involved with some of the tasks.
Background
Company ABC plans to use Maximo® Health, Safety and Environment to create risk assessment records to ensure that workplace risks are thoroughly evaluated. Company ABC identifies the actions to take to eliminate or to mitigate the risks that are related to work activities. The risk assessment also identifies the precautions to prevent work site accidents or system failures.
A risk assessment can be linked to a number of applications, such as the Work Order Tracking application. For tasks that contain a high level of risk, a risk assessment might be essential before work can begin on a work order or on a management of change record.
James, the Operations Supervisor, is responsible for maintaining production during a shift at an oil and gas plant. Brian, the Operations Manager, is responsible for the operational supervision and safety of the entire plant.
Before you begin
The steps that follow describe the tasks that must be done, such as creating the qualified personnel records, before you specify the details for the risk assessment.
- In the People application, authorize qualified, active personnel to review or to approve risk assessments.
- In Organizations > Oil and Gas Options, set the Risk Assessment option that requires that only an authorized person can review or approve risk assessments.
- In the Standard Actions application, develop a set of actions that apply to the hazards that are identified in the risk assessment. For each action, you can add items that must be verified as part of the hazard review. For each review item, you can request specific responses for the completion of the action. You might require the user to specify a number, an alphabetic or alphanumeric identifier, or any of these combinations. You can also request a score type of response. To be carried over to another application, actions must be in Active status.
- In the Hazards application, create records for the hazards that are related to the work activities. Hazard records must belong to the same organization as the risk assessment record. Add the precautions that are associated with the hazardous activities.
- In the Risk Matrix application, identify the risk ranking of each hazard, based on the combination of consequence, severity, and the likelihood of occurrence. Depending on the precautions that are taken, the level of risk can be reduced, generating a mitigated risk ranking. The mitigated risk ranking is populated in the Risk Assessment application.
- (Nonmandatory) In the Workflow application, create a workflow process to ensure that reviewers are notified when the risk assessment is ready for review. Also, that approvers are notified when the risk assessment is ready for approval.
Step 1 Create a risk assessment record
In the Risk Assessment application, James identifies the possible hazards that might exist at this plant. When James conducts a risk assessment of a work site, he analyzes all of the risk factors that are associated with the work activities. For each hazard, James identifies the consequences, the severity, and the likelihood of occurrence. James also identifies the precautions to be taken for each hazard.
Step 2 Specify the members of the assessment team
In the Risk Assessment application, James selects the participants of the assessment team for the risk assessment. The assessment team can consist of a few members of the technical staff, such as a team leader and an assessor. It might also include assigned technical authorities.
The assessment team is distinct from the reviewers and approvers of the risk assessment. The primary focus of the assessment team is to identify the actions that are needed for a risk assessment to ensure the safety of the plant and its personnel.
Step 3 Specify the checklist of actions
The assessment team reviews the initial risk assessment. The reviewer might also be one person. For the purposes of this scenario, the assessment team is referred. The assessment team specifies the actions or the group of actions that are needed to minimize the risks. For example, the assessment team reviews the fire detection system and evaluates its risks. The assessment team adds the actions to take to ensure the integrity of the fire detection system. The team also adds the essential responses that are expected for each review item for each action that must be completed. The persons who are assigned to implement the actions are added to the checklist of actions.
If a fire detection system fails in a particular area, one of the actions might be to monitor the system manually. An action is added, assigning someone to walk the area where the fire detection system is installed. This action is taken to find out which part of the equipment might require repair.
If an expert consultation is needed and a key member of the technical staff is off duty, another action might be to specify an on-call expert. The action would include the contact information for the expert so that it is readily available in an emergency.
When the actions are completed, the person responsible for each action specifies the date and time when the actions were completed. If review items exist, the person who is assigned also enters the responses that are essential for each review item.
James reviews the checklist of actions to ensure that all actions are complete, and that all review items are answered.
Step 4 Specify the reviewers and approvers
In the Risk Assessment application, James selects the reviewers and the approvers.
After the assessment team adds the checklist of actions, James adds the reviewers to the risk assessment. James specifies the approvers of the risk assessment, which depends on the type of technical authority that is essential for each operational area of the plant.
Step 5 Submit the initial risk assessment for review
After James specifies the reviewers, he notifies the reviewers so that they know that the risk assessment is ready for initial review.
Step 6 Review the initial version of the risk assessment
The reviewers, who might include the Process Engineer, the Operations Manager, and the Electrical Engineer, review the initial version of the risk assessment. The reviewers focus on whether risk management processes are defined comprehensively. The reviewers also verify whether all risk factors are identified and properly mitigated. The reviewers discuss the results and any possible changes that are needed.
Step 7 Modify the risk assessment and resubmit for review
In the Risk Assessment application, James looks at the risk assessment record to see whether the reviewers made any comments. If reviewers provided comments, James updates the risk assessment. James notifies the reviewers that the risk assessment is ready for a final review. When the review is complete, all members of the review team indicate their completion and specify the date of their review.
Step 8 Review and approve the final version of the risk assessment
After the final review, Brian routes the risk assessment to the approvers. The approvers review the final version of the risk assessment, and add comments as needed. They indicate their approval, and specify the date of approval.
Step 9 Update the Work Log
In the Risk Assessment application, James uses the Work Log tab to maintain a record of the changes to the risk assessment. James adds entries to the log to document the reasons for the changes. This action maintains an audit trail that is available for company audits. It also provides a history of the changes.
Step 10 Complete the risk assessment
After the final version of the risk assessment is approved, Brian changes the status of the record to Active.