Risk & Safety Management

Element 5: Reduce Risk

 

Element 5 “Reduce Risk” is where Mitigation measures are selected and implemented to achieve an acceptable risk level. Consider and evaluate the cost, feasibility, and effectiveness of candidate mitigation methods as part of the Systems Engineering process and Integrated Product Team (IPT) processes. Present the current hazards, their associated severity and probability assessments, and status of risk reduction efforts at technical reviews.

 

MIL-STD-882E “Standard Practice for System Safety” – Page 13

 

– See Risk Mitigation Planning

 

Risk Avoidance
Is when it’s decided to perform other activities that don’t carry the identified risk by eliminating the root cause and/or consequence.  It seeks to reconfigure the project such that the risk in question disappears or is reduced to an acceptable value.

 

Risk Controlling
Is when you control the risk by managing the cause and/or consequence. Risk control can take the form of installing data-gathering or early warning systems that provide information to assess more accurately the impact, likelihood, or timing of a risk. If warning of a risk can be obtained early enough to take action against it, then information gathering may be preferable to more tangible and possibly more expensive actions.

 

Risk Transfer/Sharing
Is when you share the risk with a third party like an insurance company or subcontractor.

 

Risk Assumption
Is accepting the loss, or benefit of gain, from a risk when it occurs. Risk assumption is a viable strategy for small risks where the cost of insuring against the risk would be greater over time than the total losses sustained.

Next Element: Verify, Validate, and Document Risk Reduction

 

AcqLinks and References:

Updated: 7/29/2017

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