Managing Key and Significant Risks Through Bowtie Models

From "Carpet Bombing" to Targeted Risk Management

The transition of large industrial companies to a risk-oriented approach is a natural stage in the development of occupational safety systems. Practice shows that the mass implementation of many disparate tools ("carpet bombing") often proves ineffective: initiatives do not take root locally due to differences in asset specifics and a lack of resources. In his presentation, Yuri Solodovnikov, Head of the Industrial Safety Culture Development Department at Gazprom Neft, explains how the company transformed its management system by focusing on key and significant risks through barrier logic.

Architecture of the Risk-Oriented Approach

The foundation of the new system is the "Safety Framework" program, based on five key elements:

• Goal Setting and Prioritization: identifying the top 31 critical scenarios (potential damage of over 8 billion rubles, environmental disasters, multiple fatalities) and the top 76 significant risks.
• Barrier Prioritization: using bowtie diagrams to determine the most effective incident prevention measures.
• Ensuring Operability: developing strict criteria for each barrier. If even one criterion is not met, the entire barrier is considered inoperable.
• Verification and Analysis: regular inspections by specialized departments using unified checklists.
• People: developing competencies and a safety culture that tie all system elements together.

How to Measure the Effectiveness of Occupational Safety

One of the main challenges in the industry remains assessing progress in HSE. The speaker demonstrates, using his company as an example, that the implementation status and operability of protective barriers can serve as an effectiveness metric. To eliminate double interpretations during inspections (for example, disputes about exactly where an employee should wear a personal gas analyzer), unified checklists were introduced. This created a common information field for line managers and inspecting officers.

Cascading Tools to the Production Level

An important stage in the system's development was transferring risk analysis tools directly to the business. The company developed its own IT solution for building bowtie diagrams and trained hundreds of line managers in the methodology. Now, site and unit managers can independently:

• Assess risks at the tactical and operational levels.
• Form sets of barriers for specific locations and work processes.
• Justify targeted budgeting for safety measures for a three-year period.

This approach took the tool beyond the HSE department, making it a working mechanism for production personnel.

Process Optimization and Cancellation of Ineffective Practices

The introduction of new risk-oriented tools inevitably requires a review of old processes. The webinar also discussed the results of an industry survey, which showed that the vast majority of HSE department heads (about 96%) regularly cancel ineffective practices — duplicate inspections and excessive reporting. At the same time, experts emphasize the importance of preliminary digitization of labor costs (time and motion studies) for a justified rejection of outdated procedures.

What You Will Learn from This Webinar:

• How to identify critical scenarios and focus the HSE budget on them?
• How to use the bowtie model to assess the operability of protective barriers?
• What to do if a barrier fails and an incident occurs?
• How to involve line managers in independent risk assessment at their sites?
• Why is it necessary to cancel ineffective old practices when implementing new safety processes?