Hazards Analysis & Risks Assessment

By
Sebastien A. Daleyden
Vincent M. Goussen
Hazards Analysis & Risks Assessment

• Importance of safety in design

• Hazard analysis: What is it?
• An useful engineer’s tool: Designsafe
 Importance of safety in design

Unintentional injuries
• Cost of $399 billion a year only in the USA;
• Fifth leading cause of death;
• Due to interaction between machines and
their environment and the way people live
and work

Engineers should more think about the

safety of the users...
 Importance of safety in design

The main reasons why we should

more care about safety are:
 Time
 Costs
 Competition
 International Influences
 Capturing knowledge
 Product liability
 Hazard analysis: What is it?

Objectives:
Tool for engineers and safety
practitioners to
• identify possible hazards,
• provide an evaluation of the risks,
• prompt alternative design solutions
to mitigate or control the risks to an
acceptable level.
 Hazard analysis: What is it?

Hazard: Potentially dangerous condition, which

is triggered by an event, called the cause of
the hazard.

Risk: hazard that is associated with a severity

and a probability of occurrence.
 Hazard analysis: What is it?

Hazard analysis: Identify all possible

hazards potentially created by a product,
process or application.

Risk assessment: It is the next step after

the collection of potential hazards. Risk
in this context is the probability and
severity of the hazard becoming reality.
 Hazard analysis: What is it?

When performed:
Before the design begins.

Information used:
 Literature,
 Scenarios,
 Expert opinions,
 Personal experience.
 Hazard analysis: What is it?

General risk assessment protocol :

Establish Analysis Parameters

Identify Hazards

Assess Risks

Derive Risk Rating

Reduce Risks

Verify Effectiveness

Document Results
 Hazard analysis: What is it?

Establish Analysis Parameters

Identify Hazards These parameters can be

Assess Risks
limits of the machine or
design, limits on uses,
Derive Risk Rating
limits on the scope of the
Reduce Risks analysis, or other limits.
Verify Effectiveness

Document Results
 Hazard analysis: What is it?

Establish Analysis Parameters

Identify Hazards The nature of this step

lends itself to a team
Assess Risks
approach such as
Derive Risk Rating brainstorming.
Reduce Risks

Verify Effectiveness

Document Results
 Hazard analysis: What is it?

Establish Analysis Parameters

Identify Hazards
Two risk factors are used:
Assess Risks
• severity of injury
Derive Risk Rating
• probability of occurrence
Reduce Risks

Verify Effectiveness

Document Results
 Hazard analysis: What is it?

Establish Analysis Parameters

Risk matrix:
Identify Hazards Severity Category
Probability Level Catastrophic Critical Marginal Negligible
Assess Risks Frequent High High Serious Serious
Probable High High Serious Low
Derive Risk Rating Occasional High Serious Low Low
Remote Serious Low Low Low
Reduce Risks Improbable Serious Low Low Low

Verify Effectiveness If the risk is determined to not be

acceptable, it is necessary to reduce
Document Results that risk by implementing protective
measures.
 Hazard analysis: What is it?

Establish Analysis Parameters

Remedy actions are taken to
Identify Hazards reduce risks following the hazard
hierarchy:
Assess Risks

• Eliminate hazards through the design

Derive Risk Rating
 Protect
Reduce Risks  Warn the user
 Train the user(s)
 Personal protective equipment
Verify Effectiveness

Document Results
 Hazard analysis: What is it?

Establish Analysis Parameters

Identify Hazards This assessment verifies

Assess Risks
that the remedy actions
have reduced the risks to
Derive Risk Rating
an acceptable level.
Reduce Risks

Verify Effectiveness

Document Results
 Hazard analysis: What is it?

Establish Analysis Parameters

Identify Hazards

Assess Risks

Derive Risk Rating

Reduce Risks The documentation can be added

to a technical file for future use.
Verify Effectiveness

Document Results
 Hazard analysis: What is it?

When to stop:

There is no zero risk, always some

residual risk remains.

If the residual risk is acceptable, then

the risk assessment process is
completed.
 Hazard analysis: What is it?

Caution:
Any hazard, which is not identified, will not
be addressed by safety measures and will
not be detecting during testing.

Hazard not identified during this analysis

can create substantial risk to users of the
design.
 Hazard analysis: What is it?

An efficient tool:
A new computer tool, named
Designsafe, specially designed to speed the
hazard analysis process has become
available.
It uses a task-based method to ensure all
hazards to users are identified.
 An useful engineers’ tool: Designsafe

dse has developed a fast, easy-to-use tool for

engineers and safety professionals to incorporate
safety through design by:
 identifying hazards
 prompting engineers to think about hazards which
they otherwise might overlook
 conducting a risk assessment for identified hazards
 reducing risks in a structured method
 preventing accidents and reducing liability
 An useful engineers’ tool: Designsafe

what it is...
 an engineering tool for improving product
designs and processes
 a systematic method for conducting a task-
based safety analysis
 a technique for eliminating and controlling
hazards
 An useful engineers’ tool: Designsafe

what it does...
 gives designers a quick and easy tool to evaluate safety
issues through design
 permits quick assessment of engineer's change orders
to safety issues
 assists design engineers in completing a safety analysis
for their products/processes
 helps companies identify potential hazards and
provides methods for elimination
 prioritizes design activities related to risk
 An useful engineers’ tool: Designsafe

what are the benefits...

 helps prompt remedy actions for existing hazards
 can be employed at all stages of the life cycle of a
design
 assists in obtaining the CE mark for assessing
European markets
 can be printed for documentation or a technical file
 helps assure all hazards are addressed to completion
 An useful engineers’ tool: Designsafe

what are the limits...

 It’s a guide, not an expert system;
 Poor inputs or incomplete data lead to poor results.
 What could be the next steps ?

Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)

• a powerful diagnostic tool for analyzing
complex systems,
• begins with selecting the “top event”,
• repeating this process at successive levels
using standardized symbols identifies
primary and secondary faults.
 What could be the next steps ?

Failure Modes and Effects Analysis

 identifies potential product modes which could
lead to accidents,
 breaks down designs into components or
subcomponents, then systematically evaluates
the potential for and effects of individual
failures,
 results of the analysis are used to evaluate and
implement preventive measures to eliminate or
control hazards.