(32b) Looking from the past to the Future - Is Loss Prevention Affected by Globalisation?

Abstract: The globalisation process challenges not only existing industrial and governmental structures. The globalisation feeds an accelerating process of industrial concentration, rationalisation and moving of entire production facilities to third world countries. For economical reasons production of goods is concentrated in larger, ?mono product? facilities, plants are designed to deliver 100 % of designed production capacity 365 x 24 a year. The paper presented describes a rather interesting finding that the formation of common markets and the step to a free global market with all the changes and challenges involved create new and sometimes unexpected risks and challenges to the Loss Prevention.

Globalisation has increased the trans-boundary nature of both risk and vulnerability, decision making in safety matters is not subject to a single global authority, but to different institutions and authorities being or feeling responsible for risk framing, assessment and management. Inconsistencies, misunderstandings and communication problems are immanent, Guidelines and Standards addressing the same problem but offering deviating results and solutions increase the confusion.

Contributing to the design of Guidelines, Standards and risk assessment procedures from a national platform (Germany, VDI) through the European Standardisation Process (CEN Working Groups) to international working groups (ISSA, NFPA) over the last 25 years has given the insight and contributed to develop an understanding that the globalisation process is a challenge to the Loss Prevention and that industrial installations in practice may need a more differentiated risk assessment with networking actors and new evaluation and protection techniques that consider not only the present protection aspects but also aspects such as loss of production and its impact on others. Risk benefit evaluations and integrated risk disaster management may be other aspects.