(47aj) New Tools to Aggregate Operational Risk Across an Enterprise of Assets and to Help Govern This Risk through Policy Which Can be Directly Linked to Front Line Decision Making

Major catastrophic incidents typically result  in a whole spectrum of consequences, the highest being the loss of life and serious injury. Beyond the harm to people, the financial cost can be extreme to the extent that it can jeapordize the future of the corporation responsible. Following recent headline grabbing incidents, board members who are responsible for the secure and prosperous stewardship of corporations are asking the question, how do we properly govern such risks in our organisations.

This is the challenge most organisations now face, how to make sure that the major Operational Risks with our plant, equipment and people are being properly managed and how within a large global organisation a picture of this aggregated risk can be presented. This paper will explore the nature of operational risk and its contribution not just from Process Safety Hazards but also from ongoing work hazards. It will propose that the combination of compromised protection layers and the risk from new hazards introduced as a result of ongoing work represent the cumulative Operational risk which needs to be managed. The day to day status of these protection layers and the ongoing work schedule represent the dynamic involved in Operational risk Management. Currently we lack proper tools to effectively measure this risk in pace with the dynamic of operations where every day is different. Similarly we lack the ability to aggregate this risk across many units in a large plant or across many plants in different regions to provide an overall picture of operational risk exposure to the organisation. There are, however, new technology solutions emerging which will allow this to be achieved. This new category of application platform helps manage ongoing work from a risk perspective taking into account real time data on the status of protection layers in the plant. Working in concert with the maintenance management system, a fuller picture of protection layer status can be presented and for the first time a picture showing maintenance and repair work efficiency along with risk status can be achieved. These tools allow better decisions to be made at the frontline. Furthermore, they are designed to be deployed across large organisations and with the ability to aggregate risk data across the corporation effectively in real time. They also provide tools to allow organisations to better manage the common operational risks helping directly drive policy in front line decision making.

The paper will present some realistic scenarios and explain how future operations can be not only be manged more safely but that governance of the enterprise organisation in terms of operational risk management is now more achievable.