Basic elements of a risk management program

The modern industrial manger faces the challenge of safely and efficiently operating increasingly complex, sophisticated, and expensive plants in an atmosphere of reduced resources and increased competition, and frequently with heightened political and public oversight. These political and public concerns have become especially significant where the Federal Government regulates and/or funds programs that have a significant potential for adverse public safety or environmental impacts. Under these circumstances, a major accident or environmental insult could translate into major programmatic delay, redirection, or even plant closing. After-the-fact (reactive) resolution of safety and/or environment problems is both costly and time-consuming process. Therefore, it is prudent for managers at all levels to initiate aggressive proactive efforts to identify and control the risks (hazards) associated with their programs. Unfortunately, risk is not a concept with a single, universally accepted definition. It is most often represented as the product of the probability of occurrence of undesired events and the resultant consequences of those events. The consequences of concern may include: loss of human health, reduction in life expectancy, or loss of life; material or financial losses; environmental damage; or even societal disturbances. This paper discusses risk management and systems safety interest in which has intensified over the post decade principally because of public perceptions of the risks associated with nuclear power and the disposal of hazardous chemical wastes