RISK MANAGEMENT (Engineering)

This Handbook / Guidance Note has been prepared to identify and flag issues a prudent underwriter ought to consider and evaluate relating to the steel industry risk selection, determination and calculation of loss estimates when deciding whether to accept a risk and, if so, on what terms.

Risk assessment, by itself, does nothing to reduce risk or improve safety. It can only change outcomes by informing the design and management of effective risk control interventions. But current practice in healthcare risk management suffers from an almost complete lack of support for risk control. This first installment of a 2-part series on rebalancing risk management describes a new framework to guide risk control practice: The Process for Active Risk Control.

This Handbook | Guidance Note has been prepared to identify and flag issues a prudent Underwriter and Risk Engineer ought to consider and evaluate relating to industries involving Renewable Energy - risk selection, determination and calculation of loss estimates - when determining whether to accept a risk and, if so, on what terms.

BACKGROUND: Fishbone diagrams have been widely promoted as a systems-focused hazard analysis tool for use in root cause analysis, but they suffer from a number of structural weaknesses, including a unidirectional structure that only takes into account forces that promote an accident (ignoring those that make the accident less likely or less severe) and a means of displaying these forces that does not convey any difference in strength of influence. In a separate but related issue, many healthcare organizations suffer from a lack of change management expertise.

PROPOSED SOLUTION: To address these concerns, I present a novel technique, the Lovebug diagram, which draws from both Fishbone diagrams and force-field analysis (an approach to analyzing planned change). This new technique adds value to both its progenitor methods, while retaining their key strengths and ease of use. It can be used both prospectively, to assess planned changes, and retrospectively to assess unplanned (accidental) departures from the status quo.

DISCUSSION: The Lovebug diagram is a more powerful analytical tool than its progenitor methods; however, overall adoption of systems-focused tools for root cause analysis remains suboptimal. Additional research is needed to determine how best to promote a truly systems-focused approach to healthcare root cause analysis. Beyond this retrospective use of the technique, it represents a simple tool to assist healthcare organizations with prospective change management.

Available from: http://cri.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/10/25/1356262213510855.abstract

This Handbook / Guidance Note has been prepared to identify and flag issues a prudent underwriter ought to consider and evaluate relating to the aluminum industry risk selection, determination and calculation of loss estimates when deciding whether to accept a risk and, if so, on what terms.

Au cours des cinq dernières années, l'utilisation très répandue, surtout dans l'industrie alimentaire, de panneaux sandwich isolés avec un matériau inflammable a eu pour conséquence que les dommages matériels dus à l'incendie sont devenus plus sévères. Les assureurs savent aujourd'hui pertinemment que la présence de ces panneaux sandwich constitue un important risque d'incendie dans toutes les branches industrielles. Cela étant désormais bien connu du marché, les assureurs refusent de couvrir ces risques ou augmentent le montant des primes d'où une réduction considérable de la prise en charge de ces risques. Si les conditions techniques n'évoluent pas, ce marché va probablement se limiter à une poignée d'assureurs très sophistiqués qui se concentrent sur la prévention. C'est ce problème qui nous a conduits à publier la présente note technique qui vise à faire un tour d'horizon des problèmes d'assurance liés aux différents types de panneaux et de barrières thermiques, de la protection et de la prévention actives, et qui donne des exemples des différentes pratiques en matière d'assurance. Nous sommes convaincus qu'avec une meilleure connaissance et une meilleure compréhension des risques potentiels, il est possible d'assurer les panneaux sandwich à un niveau plus confortable mais uniquement à condition de pratiquer des tarifications appropriées et une excellente gestion de risque. Vos correspondants SCOR habituels seront heureux de vous fournir toutes les informations complémentaires que vous souhaitez, en matière de tarification, d'analyse de risque, de prévention, d'évaluation du Sinistre Maximum Possible (SMP), ainsi que toutes autres références techniques.

This Handbook | Guidance Note has been prepared to identify and flag issues a prudent Underwriter and Risk Engineer ought to consider and evaluate relating to industries involving Embankment Dams - risk selection, determination and calculation of loss estimates - when determining whether to accept a risk and, if so, on what terms.

The City of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia is expanding rapidly, in terms of new buildings and increasing population. The rapid urbanization leads to higher risk from seismic events; even in areas of moderate seismicity such as this city. The present study addresses the rapid evaluation of a large number of buildings in Jeddah involving steps to determine hazard, assessing building stock, and computing vulnerability with a scoring method from FEMA 155. Two districts were selected for investigation based on a cluster analysis applied to population and building data from the local municipality. One selected district was a contemporary developed urbanized area, and the other was a more traditional area. Such selection offered the possibility to compare vulnerability of buildings built according to different seismic codes and to make assumptions about the rest of the city based on typical structures of districts. The basic structural score was determined considering the building structure and moderate seismicity of the region using score modifiers, e.g. vertical irregularity score modifier; soil score modifier assuming sabkahs. The results of the investigation reveal a different level of vulnerability and areas where intervention is needed. The method can be applied for further analysis of the city.

In this research, the safety/risk level of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier system is investigated through the application of a fuzzy evidential reasoning (FER) method to uncertainty treatment of its failure modes. A fuzzy set manipulation formula with multiple parameters such as consequence severity, failure consequence probability, and failure likelihood is used to assess the safety/risk levels of failure modes of the system. Such failure estimations are synthesized to evaluate the whole system's safety/risk level using an evidential reasoning (ER) approach. Risk control options (RCOs) are developed for reduction/control of high-risk level of the system. The best RCO, which is the one with the highest preference degree, is used to improve the safety level of the system.

The paper presents overview of the risk management practices and bridges different approaches for coping with risk issues within product development (PD) environment. Existing risk management maturity (RMM) model is used to evaluate and monitor as-is RM situation in organizations, but also to set required objectives in terms of future RM practice. In order to expand a model and allow its usage for prescriptive purposes, the paper describes recommendations for tailoring RM process within the PD context. Proposed approach is preliminarily tested and validated through a case study.

Over the last decades there have been significant fire losses (Property Damage/Business Interruption) associated with the use of insulated sandwich panels. As the frequency and severity of losses has been increasing, it has become necessary to mitigate the risks for building occupants and fire fighters, and to reduce property losses related to the use of insulated sandwich panels.

This Handbook | Guidance Note has been prepared to identify and flag issues a prudent underwriter ought to consider and evaluate relating to falling aircraft exposure determination and calculation of loss estimates when determining whether to accept a risk and, if so, on what terms.

The City of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia is expanding rapidly, in terms of new buildings and increasing population. The rapid urbanization leads to higher risk from seismic events; even in areas of moderate seismicity such as this city. The present study addresses the rapid evaluation of a large number of buildings in Jeddah involving steps to determine hazard, assessing building stock, and computing vulnerability with a scoring method from FEMA 155. Two districts were selected for investigation based on a cluster analysis applied to population and building data from the local municipality. One selected district was a contemporary developed urbanized area, and the other was a more traditional area. Such selection offered the possibility to compare vulnerability of buildings built according to different seismic codes and to make assumptions about the rest of the city based on typical structures of districts. The basic structural score was determined considering the building structure and moderate seismicity of the region using score modifiers, e.g. vertical irregularity score modifier; soil score modifier assuming sabkahs. The results of the investigation reveal a different level of vulnerability and areas where intervention is needed. The method can be applied for further analysis of the city.