What is a safety audit? Link to ‘’what is a safety audit’’
A safety audit is a systematic, documented process of ensuring compliance with safety regulations, plans, and results. It determines whether these arrangements are implemented effectively to achieve the organisation’s safety objectives.
Safety auditing is critical to an effective safety management system, ensuring organisations are compliant with regulations, standards, customer, and supplier demands and most importantly the safety of the employees and contractors working for and with the organisation.
What is the bowtie methodology? Link to: ‘’What is the bowtie methodology’’
A bowtie diagram is shaped like a “bow-tie”, with preventive measures on the left, recovery (or mitigating) measures on the right, and the top event (main event) in the centre. This visual layout provides a clear and comprehensive overview of the risk landscape in a single picture. The diagram includes:
– Threats (Causes): Factors that can lead to the top event.
– Top Event: The critical incident where control is lost.
– Consequences: The outcomes of the top event.
– Preventive Barriers: Measures to prevent the top event from occurring.
– Recovery Barriers: Measures to mitigate the impact of the top event if it occurs.
How to Use the Bowtie Methodology for Safety Auditing?
The bowtie methodology provides a comprehensive, yet easy-to-understand overview of the risk picture. This makes a bowtie diagram a great tool for risk-based safety audits. Risk-based audits differ from more traditional audits in the sense that the organisation’s biggest risks form the centre of the audit and not the regulations or company procedures. In this way, the organisation’s resources are focused on the most prevalent organisational risks.
- Hazard identification. The first step when using the bowtie methodology in a risk-based safety audit is to identify the hazards within the audit’s scope [Link to ‘’how to prepare a safety audit’’ Subheading 2 ‘’Preparing a safety audit’’. The scope of the audit should already be determined by the organisation’s management or the lead auditor. Consider the following sources when identifying hazards:
- Expert judgement; Assemble a team of diverse subject matter experts to brainstorm relevant hazards.
- Industry Checklists: Use industry standards and checklists to identify relevant hazards.
- Historical data: Use previous inspections, audits, near misses and accident reports to identify the relevant hazards.
- Define the top event: The top event is often considered a ‘critical’ or ‘central’ event. It is an event that is central to the bowtie, meaning that it can lead to many different negative consequences. This event indicates the moment in which control over the hazard is lost.
- List threats and consequences: After having defined the top event, identify what could cause this top event (threats) and what could be the negative consequences of the event occurring.
- Identify barriers: The barriers describe the measures that prevent the top event from occurring, and the measures that are installed to mitigate the impact of the top event. These barriers should be identified in the planning phase of the audit, but also during and after the audit. The barriers that are identified at the start of the audit can be linked to regulations, standards, and organisational procedures. Use this information to make checklists, focus points and questionnaires to assess the current performance and the overall effectiveness and efficiency of each barrier.
- Evaluate barriers: Establish the performance and the effectiveness of each barrier. Use the checklists and questionnaires from the previous step when conducting the site visit, interviews, and document review. And interpret the results. Determine the reliability and efficiency of each barrier.
- Report findings: Add the information from the barrier evaluation to the bowtie diagram. Report on the current performance, the reliability and efficiency of each of the safety barriers. Provide recommendations for improvements and ensure all findings are documented for future reference (audit trail).
Conclusion
The bowtie methodology is a powerful tool for enhancing safety audits, providing a clear and comprehensive visualisation of risks and their control measures. For those looking to implement this robust methodology seamlessly, consider using OpenRisk. OpenRisk is a software program designed to help you create detailed and effective bowtie diagrams with ease. Go to openrisk.presight.com and sign-up for free to use the software.
