Risk Assessment Challenges 20:20

A wide variety of hazard identification and risk assessment techniques are available.  All techniques require knowledge in the fundamentals of the process design and experience in the process operation as is.   Some techniques are very simple and give quick results but poor repeatability.  Other techniques are very complex, hard to construct, and time consuming, but given the same set of assumptions the model yields repeatable answers.  Every technique has uncertainty and no technique yields any better reflection of the risk than the level of engagement that the analyst or team has in the assessment.  Traditional risk assessment approaches work well on simple processes, but are becoming increasingly difficult to apply in the rapidly evolving environment of modern manufacturing.   

This paper discusses the challenges that the risk assessment process is facing in today’s work environment.  These challenges include the rapid evolution of vogue practices, myopic focus on hazard scenarios, hypnotic lure of calculations, rampant pace of technology change, and increased complexity in human and automation interaction.