Category Archives: Tips&Tools@Risk™

#52 – HOW WELL DO RISK ASSESSMENTS INFORM DECISION MAKERS? – CHRIS PEACE

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Chris Peace pixSometimes, it seems that every newspaper edition, news broadcast or news website carries yet another story about a disaster – an event that might have been avoided by better decision making.

But do we ask whether such decisions were informed by risk assessments?  And if so, how effective were those risk assessments for informing the decision makers about the risks?  Which techniques were used in the risk assessments? Were the results presented in a way that made sense to the decision makers?  Do risk assessors follow a good process and so achieve some consistency in results, or do they just get lucky? Continue reading →

#48 – HOW TO IMPLEMENT A GOOD FMEA – CARLOS E. Z. KRAHEMBUHL

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CarlosThe Failure Mode and Effect Analysis is a great tool to evaluate the potentials risks existent in every activity or process.  Take a look at my article ‘FMEA in the Kitchen.’

The PFMEA – Process Failure Mode and Effect Analysis has focus into eliminate or reduce the potential issues in a new or current process. After calculating the RPN – Risk Potential Number – it is possible to decide if preventive actions need to be done. The PFMEA is done step by step, but is necessary pay attention in some points to avoid common mistakes. Continue reading →

#48 – RECOVERY: LEAST UNDERSTOOD OF THE CONTINUITY LIFECYCLE ELEMENTS – GARY SIKICH

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The post-crisis recovery phase is one of the least addressed in planning, training and simulations.  This is an area that, if not properly managed, can cost financially, reputationally and operationally.  Communications, internal and external are, at best, misjudged.  Guidelines for recovery are lacking and most entities lose focus when it comes to discussing recovery operations. Continue reading →

#48 – WHAT DOES ISO ‘RISK BASED THINKING’ REALLY MEAN? – T. DAN NELSON

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T. Dan NelsonISO is promoting ‘Risk-Based Thinking’ in all of its standards – even ISO 9001:2015 its flagship Quality Management System standard.  What does this really mean for companies?

IRISK AS PART OF QUALITY
Risk is recognized (finally?) as being part of quality management—which is nothing new.  Risk is involved with every activity in life—some will likely knee-jerk react with an over-blown response to the inclusion of risk-based thinking among ISO 9001 requirements.  To clearly comply with the requirement to apply ‘risk-based thinking’, some companies will no doubt be tempted to raise a ‘Risk Management’ process and maybe even hire a ‘Risk Manager,’ even though neither is necessary to implement ‘risk-based thinking’ or to comply with requirements to apply ‘risk-based thinking.’ Continue reading →

#47 – AS 9101 E – BEST YET – T. DAN NELSON

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T. Dan NelsonAS9101 is the audit companion to AS9100.  A sector scheme of ISO 9001, AS9100 is used in the aerospace and defense industries.  Certifying bodies (CBs) use AS9101 as a guide for auditors using AS9100. AS9101E, released just this month, seems to offer a vast improvement over all previous versions of AS9101.

Revision E removes the temptation to use AS9101 as stage 2 audit criteria, while at the same time further promoting a process approach to auditing, being clear about the importance of stage 1 auditing. Continue reading →