Safety Decision Hierarchy

The set of commands and actions that follow a sequence of priority to reach a conclusion is called hierarchy. Hierarchy identifies the actions to be considered in an order of effectiveness to resolve hazard and risk situations. It helps in locating a problem of risk, its analysis and approaches to avoid this risk, a plan for action, and its effects on productivity. 

Considering all the above points, the risk management program can be started from a proper design of a machine, process, reactions, installation, operation and maintenance, and so forth. 

---

Also, there is a chapter in Innovations in Safety Management titled The Safety Decision Hierarchy. It sets forth a decision-making process for risk elimination and control within the context of the principles of good problem techniques. 

Develop hazard control measures, applying the Safety Decision Hierarchy. 

When required by the results of the risk assessment, alternate proposals for the design and operational changes necessary to achieve an acceptable risk level would be recommended. In their order of effectiveness, the action listing shown in The Safety Decision Hierarchy mentioned in Chapter 15, Acceptable Risk, would be the base upon which remedial proposals are made. For each proposal, remediation cost would be determined and an estimate of its effectiveness in achieving risk reduction would be given. 

Although a hazard analysis and a risk assessment would result from applying the preceding outline, good management requires that the remaining steps in The Safety Decision Hierarchy be taken, which are—decide and take action, and measure for effectiveness. 

To assist those who are to decide if a risk is acceptable, a guide follows, in Figure 15.1, captioned The Safety Decision Hierarchy. It... 

Comments follow in support of the logic for the risk reduction actions and the significance of their order of effectiveness. They are excerpted from the chapter The Safety Decision Hierarchy in Innovations in Safety Management In all but the rare situation, application of this hierarchy will result in attaining an acceptable risk level. 

It should be recognized that application of The Safety Decision Hierarchy will, in all but the exceptional situations, attain an acceptable risk level. 

Behavior-based safety does not recognize the most effective method of controlling hazards, which is through the application of the hierarchy of controls [p. 7]. (See The Safety Decision Hierarchy in Innovations in Safety Management Addressing Career Knowledge Needs.)... 

Annex G provides a pictorial and verbal display of the Hierarchy of Controls listed in Section 5.1.1 with application examples for each element. In Chapter 12, Hierarchy of Controls The Safety Decision Hierarchy, the state-of-the-art is moved forward through extensions that this author believes are now necessary in the first step within the hierarchy Elimination. Also, the hierarchy is enveloped within a sound problem-solving technique. The chapter includes a section titled The Logic of Taking Action in an Order of Effectiveness. ... 

In that text, the discussion of each step is extensive. Comments will be made here on the first two only. The remaining steps are addressed in Chapter 12, Hierarchy of Controls The Safety Decision Hierarchy. For Step 1,—Identify the hazards—the hazard analysis and risk assessment methodologies are as shown in Table 2. 

Chapter 12, Hierarchy of Controls The Safety Decision Hierarchy, Section 5.1.1... 

Place the hierarchy of controls within good problem-solving techniques, as in The Safety Decision Hierarchy... 

In Innovations in Safety Management Addressing Career Knowledge Needs, published in 2003, the following hierarchy of controls was encompassed within The Safety Decision Hierarchy, which is to be discussed later. It may also be found in two articles written by this author Risk Assessment and Hierarchies of Control and Achieving Risk Reduction, Effectively. ... 

In every problem-solving method reviewed, the first steps are to identify and analyze the problem. Also, they end with a provision requiring that evaluations be made of the effects of the actions taken. Figure 1, The Safety Decision Hierarchy, presents a logical sequence of actions that safety professionals should consider in resolving safety issues identify and analyze the problem consider the possible solutions decide on and implement an action plan and determine whether the actions taken achieved the intended risk reduction results. Note that such a sequence of actions also fits weU with the PDCA concept. 

The safety decision hierarchy depicts a way of thinking about hazards and risks and establishes an effective order for risk elimination or amelioration. Why propose that safety practitioners adopt a safety decision hierarchy This quote from The New... 

It makes sense to apply a safety decision hierarchy encompassing an orderly sequence of effectiveness to resolve safety issues. 

In applying The Safety Decision Hierarchy, the goal in the problem identification and analysis phase is to identify and analyze the hazards and assess the risks. Hazard and risk problems cannot be intelligently addressed until the hazards are analyzed and assessments are made of the probability of incidents or exposures occurring and the possible severity of their consequences. Chapter 8, A Primer on Hazard Analysis and Risk Assessment, is a resource for this problem identification and analysis phase. 

The action steps shown in the section of The Safety Decision Hierarchy titled Consider These Actions, in Their Order of Effectiveness provide a basis for... 

All facets of the safety decision hierarchy apply when considering the hazards and risks in a specific facility, process, system, piece of equipment, or a tool in its simplest form. Also, they are broadly applicable in aU three major aspects of the... 

Provisions in Section 7.1 of ZIO, Management Review Process, require that systems be in place to measure the effectiveness of the risk reduction measures taken. Those provisions are relative to the measurement of effectiveness and re-analyzing steps in The Safety Decision Hierarchy. Assuring that the actions taken accomplish what was intended is an integral step in the PDCA process. Followup activity would determine that the ... 

If the followup activity indicates that the residual risk is not acceptable, the thought process set forth in the safety decision hierarchy would again be applied, commencing with hazard identification and analysis. 

To provide guidance to those applying The Safety Decision Hierarchy, we here reproduce General Design Requirements A Thought Process for Hazard Avoidance, Elimination, or Control, as it appeared in our earlier On The Practice Of Safety. This guideline is my extension of the incident and exposure prevention aspects of Haddon s work. 

Encompassing a hierarchy of controls within a sound problem-solving technique furthers the ability of management and safety professionals to achieve effective risk reduction, and to meet the requirements of certain provisions in ZIO. Adopting well-established problem-solving techniques to address hazard and risk situations is a fundamentally sound approach. That is the purpose of The Safety Decision Hierarchy. 

Much was made in Chapter 12, Hierarchy of Controls The Safety Decision Hierarchy, of the need to design work methods so that they were not error-provocative or overly stressful. Safety design reviews should not be Umited to the facility, equipment, and processes, that is—the hardware. They should also limit the hazards and risks in the work methods prescribed, taking into consideration the capabilities and limitations of the workers so that the risks of injury and damage are at a practicable minimum. 

Dr. William Haddon espoused the theory that unwanted transfers of energy can be harmful (and wastefiil) and that a systematic approach to Umiting their possibility should be taken. Thus, it is proposed that a systematic approach be taken in the design process to limit harmful transfers of energy and exposures to harmful environments. Excerpts from On the Escape of Tigers, one of Haddon s papers in which the energy release theory is presented, appear in Chapter 12, Hierarchy of Controls The Safety Decision Hierarchy. ... 

---