When you finish a risk assessment like a Process Hazards Analysis (PHA), how do you measure your success? Did you get hot lunches or was it the dreaded corporate sandwich plate? Obviously, the meals provided aren’t the best measure, so what is? How good you feel about the work? How many scenarios you created? If you finished early or on time?

If you knew there was a gas leak in your neighborhood and the lives of all the families who live near you were at risk, you would warn people right? When it comes to safety, surely you would want to share with your peers in industry as well. After all, you may be competitors in some ways when it comes to production but when it comes to safety, an incident effects everyone and prevention is in everyone’s best interest.

Digitalization is a major trend in industry and everyone is seeking solutions to advance their company into industry 4.0. But what does this really mean? Learning from history and past major trends, finding solutions that add real, measurable value and have a meaningful impact is key. Otherwise, you risk drowning in initiatives that don’t support the core drivers of your business and losing your corporate focus along with the appetite for new ideas.

The cause of many incidents comes back to unresolved recommendations. Some of those risks are greater than others. Some may not require resolution at all. There could even be overlapping recommendations that address the same risk. With these possibilities top of mind, in some cases it can be very challenging to differentiate these recommendations.

If your risk assessments are not performed well, if recommendations are not implemented using a risk-based approach, or if critical safeguards are not well understood or maintained, that could translate into higher premium costs. It has been said by many that strong process safety practices are excellent for business. Doing the right thing can not only help prevent incidents, it can demonstrate to insurers that your company is a good risk to insure.

One of your industry peers has just suffered a major incident at one of their sites; should you be worried? Not necessarily, but you should be vigilant. Is the event that happened in their facility something that could happen to you? If you’re in the same business the answer is likely yes, but the crux is how the risks are managed at your sites versus theirs. You may be exposed but the silver lining to a very sad and unfortunate event is that you have the opportunity to learn from the unsafe days of others, before it happens on your site.

Do you know how much risk comes with your new acquistion? Whether you are just looking at acquiring a new asset or you’ve recently brought one on into your company it is important to quickly understand the risk that comes with operating the facility. Are all the relevant safety threats being well managed or is it a ticking time bomb ready to put your name at the top of everyone’s newsfeed with a major incident?