RiskPoynt Brings To Market A Combined BowTie And Swiss Cheese Barrier Risk Management Offering

RiskPoynt Brings To Market A Combined BowTie And Swiss Cheese Barrier Risk Management Offering

Barrier risk management (BRM) is a specialised functionality for industrial risk management. It pulls together data from EAM, EHS and operational risk management software, with inputs from sensors and wearables to provide an integrated view of asset level risks. Over the last 15-years, BRM provided a view of risk using the established logic of risk assessment methodologies, either swiss cheese risk model or bowtie risk assessments. Swiss cheese risk models present each layer of control in place, with associated gaps in defences, enabling a view of pathways that can lead to hazards occurring. Bowtie risk assessments provide a diagrammatical view of risk that a firm or site are dealing with, the event is displayed in the middle, controls on one side and recovery methods displayed on the other. Both have flaws when used alone, swiss cheese models fail to show the complete interdependencies of risks and control measures, while bowtie assessments require large amounts of data and training to provide a comprehensive picture. A big prize then for operations managers is to leverage BRM software along with these established models to drive enhanced safety at their sites. RiskPoynt, a BRM software specialist, has launched such a solution with its 6.2 release.

RiskPoynt is an established player in the BRM software market. It is headquartered in Denver, USA with offices in Brisbane, Houston and London. The firm has clients mainly in the oil and gas sector including Bumi Armada, Chrysoar, OMV and Shell. RiskPoynt’s offering came about because of a 10-year collaboration with BG Group to answer the question “How do you assess, demonstrate and manage the cumulative effect of risks on your assets?” To deliver on this, the firm offers a real-time visualisation of risk by monitoring asset health, that then delivers a common understanding of operational risks to various individuals with risk management responsibilities – including operations managers, engineers, and maintenance professionals. RiskPoynt’s software also enables the implementation of mitigation measures to reduce cumulative risks and reporting on KPIs based on industry performance standards.

RiskPoynt Version 6.2 includes a slew of enhancements and new features. These cover improved work order deferral processing, access to enhanced data analysis and additional data feeds, and the ability to view asset locations on Google maps. The new release also includes an integrated swiss cheese and bowtie analysis view of risks. This view leverages a new ability to track and visualise operational major accident hazard (MAH) threats, along with a cumulative risk calculation that shows the weighting of each barrier within the BRM solution. This combination enables users to increase their risk management approach as they are not only able to see where threats can get through, but also their interdependencies with adjacent factors.