on Risk & Safety

A listing in reverse chronological order of articles by:

Greg Hutchins (editor) — CERM Risk Insights series

Doug Lehr — Equipment Risk and Reliability in Downhole Applications series

Sanjeev Saraf — Operational Risk, Process Safety series

by Sanjeev Saraf Leave a Comment

Terrorism Risk: Years After 9/11 Is Your Organization More Or Less Vulnerable To Terror Threats?

Terrorism Risk: Years After 9/11 Is Your Organization More Or Less Vulnerable To Terror Threats?

Years after 9/11 threat of terrorism continues to persist. Organizations buying insurance to provide protection from terror attacks is on the rise.

Terrorism Insurance

Prior to 9/11, there was terrorism insurance was not a major concern. However, after 9/11 insurance and reinsurance companies found themselves with significant amount of exposure. Immediately following 9/11, insurance companies were refusing to provide terrorism insurance or providing it at a very high premium to high risk facilities.

by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

Too Big to Fail – Suez Canal Risks

Too Big to Fail – Suez Canal Risks

Guest Post by Geary Sikich (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

The Ever Given grounding in the Suez Canal is one of those events that will be labeled a “Black Swan” for sure. A rouge wind hits the ship turning the stern and wedging the vessel, bow and stern grounded straddling the canal and stranding ships entering from either end. The date Tuesday 23 March 2021. At around 7.40 a.m. local time the Ever Given ran aground. At nearly 200 feet wide and 1,300 feet long, it easily took up the width of the channel.

by Sanjeev Saraf Leave a Comment

Hurricane Risks: Flood Damage To Plant Equipment

Hurricane Risks: Flood Damage To Plant Equipment

It has been awhile since Ike…so I figured this would be an appropriate time to post on hurricane risks.

During a hurricane plant equipment can be damaged both by high winds and flooding. For example, the majority of plant equipment damage caused by Hurricane Rita (2005) was wind related, whereas more flood-related damage was reported during Hurricane Ike (2008).

by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

Strategy Focused Management System Improves Performance

Strategy Focused Management System Improves Performance

Guest Post by Patrick Ow (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

Organisations use different management systems to provide the required foundation to direct and control their activities to achieve their objectives.

When the organisational structure is complex, the organisation needs to develop a robust, practical, yet simplified, integrated management system. This strategy-focused integrated management system will fully integrate all relevant management practices and common touchpoints of the business into one coherent and synchronised management system. In doing so, it enables and drives the achievement of its corporate strategy and improve or drives performance.

by Sanjeev Saraf Leave a Comment

BLEVE

BLEVE stands for Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion

If a tank containing liquid is subjected to external fire, the heat from the fire lead to boiling of the liquid. This in turn leads to increased pressure in the tank. This “boiling” liquid and “expanding” vapor may increase the pressure significantly and cause the tank to rupture. If the released liquid is flammable , it can catch on fire resulting in a fire and explosion.

by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

Paul Gladieux – Future of Work – Quality – Interviewed by James Kline

Paul Gladieux – Future of Work – Quality – Interviewed by James Kline

Guest Post by James Kline (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

Paul Gladieux has over 45 years of experience working in the quality profession. In 1991, he founded Global Quality Management Advisors (GQM Advisors). The group provides quality-related services focused on management system design, development, compliance, and certification in a wide range of sectors. His clients in the energy sector include companies such as: NuScale Power LLC, BWX Technologies, Westinghouse Nuclear AP1000 Program, Terra Power LLC, Worley Energy | Chemicals, U.S. Department of Energy, Westinghouse Nuclear, Vigor Industrials LLC, and Alyeska Pipeline Service Company.

by Sanjeev Saraf Leave a Comment

Have You Considered Inherently Safer Alternatives?

Have You Considered Inherently Safer Alternatives?

Inherently safer philosophy represents a slightly different approach to risk mitigation. Instead of focusing on mitigating risks, an inherently safer alternative focuses on eliminating the hazards.Let us look at couple of inherently safer examples.

by Greg Hutchins 2 Comments

About Agile 2

Guest Post by Howard M. Wiener (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

Iterative software development approaches have been around since the 1950s but many mark the beginning of what is commonly thought of as Agile as the creation of the Agile Manifesto, a document written by a number of software engineers in 2001, which contains 12 principles that serve as guidelines to how software projects should be conducted. Since then, professional services and product organizations have taken Agile and bent and twisted it into proprietary commercial forms for their own gain.

by Sanjeev Saraf Leave a Comment

Lithium Battery Fires: Why Your Laptop Can Catch On Fire?

Lithium Battery Fires: Why Your Laptop Can Catch On Fire?

Because of their dependability and long effective lifespan, lithium ion rechargeable batteries are used in almost all modern electronic gadgets – cell phones, laptops, digital cameras, power tools, video games, PDA, household devices, e-bikes, security lighting, iPods, and automobiles. As the electronic market grows, it is evident that the lithium battery market will grow exponentially!

In rare cases, lithium batteries can catch fire – often in dramatic ways.

by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

Texas Black Swan Event

Texas Black Swan Event

Guest Post by John Ayers (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

A black swan event has a very low probability of happening but if it does the consequences are devastating. The black swan event for Texas was the weather and the consequence was catastrophic to their power grid. Prior to the February 2021 snowstorm with freezing temperatures, you must go back to December 1929 to find the last historical Texas snowstorm. The storm lasted for 24 hours dropping 12 inches of snow with freezing temperatures. But they did not have natural gas, windmills and solar panels to worry about like today.

by Sanjeev Saraf Leave a Comment

Green Safety: Manage Risks Arising From Green Technologies

Green Safety: Manage Risks Arising From Green Technologies

Green is “In”.

Consumers, retail stores, and corporate policies are all going green.

But just because you have a green technology does not mean you have ZERO risks. Let me give you a couple of examples.

by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

Competencies for Future Success and Advantage

Competencies for Future Success and Advantage

Guest Post by Daniel Burrus (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

Even as I write this article, jobs in industries ranging from entertainment and media to manufacturing and medicine are being transformed by artificial intelligence (AI) and its many iterations. Many people don’t even know they are already in a competition with AI and that several facets of their job are already being accomplished by a digital application or intelligent machine. Workers will not be able to outpace these machines simply by working longer hours or moving faster on the assembly line.

by Sanjeev Saraf Leave a Comment

Alkylation Technologies: HF, H2SO4, Or Solid Acid?

Alkylation Technologies: HF, H2SO4, Or Solid Acid?

A few weeks ago, I had written about a recent fire at the alkylation unit in Citgo’s Corpus refinery, and raised the question about HF usage. Today, I would like to further delve into the alternate technologies for alklyation and also take this opportunity to summarize feedback I have received from a few readers: Mike Bordeaux, Sujith Panikkar, Menno van der Hauw, and Fabienne Salimi.

by Greg Hutchins Leave a Comment

Becoming a Risk Manager

Becoming a Risk Manager

Guest Post by Andrew Sheves (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)

Becoming a risk manager can seem to be more art than science. There’s not a clear pathway from degree to junior risk manager to senior risk manager to CRO (Chief Risk Officer) in the same way that you can chart the progress from freshly minted CPA (Certified Public Accountant) to head of Ernst & Young. (Financial risk management is the exception here as there is usually a clear path there.)

So why is the risk manager career path fuzzy compared to other professions?

by Sanjeev Saraf Leave a Comment

Is Your Emergency Response Plan Satisfactory?

Is Your Emergency Response Plan Satisfactory?

A chemical facility is mandated to have an emergency response plan by OSHA PSM and EPA RMP. An accident in the plant, a hurricane, and a potential terrorist attack are a few scenarios that mandate emergency response and planning. However, there is a vast difference between having an emergency plan and having a plan that works.

Read the remainder of the article to find out if your facility’s emergency plan is an effective one.