Effective Implementation of Bowties, an Organisational Perspective

A bowtie is an effective tool in developing complex, high risk scenarios, performing hazard identification, and supporting Layer of Protection Analysis (LOPA) and Safety Integrated Level (SIL) studies. A bowtie visualizes, on one diagram, all safety critical equipment (SCE) and tasks, which in the event of failure could potentially cause or propagate hazardous events. Safeguards are depicted on the diagram, either as preventive (on left-hand side) or mitigative (on right-hand side), as well as modifiers and enablers. Due to the simplistic nature of the bowtie to visualize hazardous scenarios, bowtie has become an effective tool to execute risk assessments as well as a visual aid in educating organizations on the application of safety barriers.

While bowtie can be used solely as a tool and means to do risk assessments, there is higher value in its application during run and maintain or daily operations. When bowties are effectively managed, it means safety critical equipment and tasks are also managed, at all levels of an organization. For the successful implementation and management of bowties, there needs to be a structure that supports its use in an organization.  This structure, defined as success factors, plays an important part in ensuring the overall safety ‘chain’ is effectively maintained. These success factors are leadership, organizational alignment, people, framework and technology. In this paper, each success factor is defined and examples provided. This includes, among others, setting the right KPIs (both leading and lagging), reporting, auditing, stakeholder management, competency and framework structure. Examples of effective use of technology are also shared. By ensuring these success factors are implemented, substantial benefit can be obtained. Examples of successes as well as lessons learned are also shared.