Risk Reliability and Safety

GENG5507

Engineering a safer world

What do engineers want?

2
Safety, Risk, Reliability – how difficult can
it be?

3
 What are the challenges

• Fast pace of technological change

• Reduced ability to learn from experience
• Changing nature of accidents (due to digital systems
and software)
• Increasing complexity (interactive, dynamic and non-
linear)
• Complex relationships between humans & automation
• Changing regulatory and public views of safety

Extract from: Leveson, N.G (2011) Engineering a Safer World, MIT Press 4
Where are we now in thinking about RRS?

• Need to focus on building safer SYSTEMS

• Systems include People, Process and Technology
• Systems are dynamic and complex
• Trade-offs are often involved to manage competing
goals

5
Do you agree?

• Safety is increased by increasing system and

component reliability. If components or system do not
fail, then accidents will not occur.
• Accidents are caused by chains of directly related
events. We can understand accidents and assess risk
by looking at the chain of events of events leading to the
loss.
• Most accidents are caused by operator error. Rewarding
safe behaviour and punishing unsafe behaviour will
eliminate or reduce accidents significantly.
• Major accidents occur from the chance simultaneous
occurrence of random events. 6
Plan for the workshop

• Piper Alpha disaster

– Identify immediate causes, design issues,
management system issues and cultural issues that
contributed to the main explosion
– What were the factors (design and other) that
aggravated the event?
Piper Alpha

We will listen to Part 1 of the recording (9 mins) prior

to this discussion – this shows events leading up to the
first explosion
Instructions – Record the following for factors
that contributed to the main explosion
Management system factors Design factors

Cultural issues Immediate events/

contributions
Piper Alpha

We will listen to Part 2 of the recording (9 mins) - this

shows events after first explosion
 Results – factors that aggravated
the situation
Management system factors
Design factors

Aggravating events

Cultural issues
Hierarchy of controls
Could this happen again?

• Link to Piper Alpha video 3 (6:20)

BP
Deepwater
Horizon, Gulf
of Mexico
April 2010
 The 3 capital model

ORGANISATIONAL RISK, RELIABILITY

CAPITAL & SAFETY
Processes & Practice
Management systems
(What we should do and (what actually
when) happens)

PEOPLE
SOCIAL SYSTEMS
Skills
Leadership
Awareness
Culture
Experience
Trust
Lessons learned?

15
What are things you can focus on
as a newly graduated engineer?

• Critical – knowing what to look for

– e.g. Be alert to signals in the noise
• Actual – knowing what to do and be capable of
doing it Critical

– e.g. Model/ consider dynamic effects; lead by

Factual
example.
• Factual – knowing what has happened Actual

Potentia
– e.g. Actively investigate historical factors to identify l
latent issues
• Potential – finding out and knowing what to expect
– e.g. Be mindful of new and emerging hazards and
changes to existing hazards. Ability to adapt.