What is risk analysis

Accidents and near accidents are unwanted events occurring at random points in time. At the same time, they represent opportunities of learning about hazards and causal factors at the workplace and in the company. We should grab the opportunities when they occur and conduct adequate investigations. Workplace inspections and SHE audits are pre-planned activities that also represent opportunities of learning. They focus on deviations, contributing factors and root causes and not, in the first place, on hazards. 

Risk analysis is complementary to these different activities. Risk analysis is a planned activity, where we want to identify and remedy hazards before accidents and near accidents happen. Risk analysis is thus anticipatory in nature and supports feed-forward processes rather than the feedback processes of, for example, accident investigations. By applying risk analysis, we will speed up the learning processes. Evaluations show that properly executed risk analyses of work systems will reveal hazards corresponding to many years of accident experience from the same types of systems (Suokas, 1985). 

Risk analysis is a collective name for different methods involving the following activities (cf. CEN, 1996 ISO, 1999)  

1 Defining the analysis object and determining its limits. The analysis object is a geographical area of a plant, a machine, a job, etc. 

2 Hazard identification and evaluation of situations, where people (or other voluntary targets such as the environment or material assets) may get in contact with the hazard. 

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