Practical Application of Bowties Analysis; Enhancing Traditional PHA

The benefits of using bowtie diagrams for risk management have been realized by organizations world-wide across a variety of business sectors. They provide a readily understandable visualization of the relationships between the causes of business upsets, the escalation of such events to a range of possible outcomes, the controls preventing the event from occurring and the preparedness measures in place to limit the consequences. More importantly, the preventive and mitigative measures are linked to tasks, procedures, responsible individuals and competencies, thereby demonstrating the crucial connection between risk controls and the management system for assuring their ongoing effectiveness.

The intention of this paper is to draw on our experience in applying the bowtie methodology and is intended to be of interest to those who are new to the technique and experienced users alike. With the growing popularity of bowtie in North America, this presentation focus on application of the methodology and describes in detail its practical uses and benefits as well as potential pitfalls. Of particular note is the resolution of the following, commonly asked, question: “What does bowtie do that PHA doesn’t?”