Hazardous equipment presents some of the most significant risks across industries, often resulting in severe, life-altering injuries such as scalping, degloving, amputations, and dislocations. According to Safe Work Australia, machinery-related incidents are a leading cause of workplace injuries, with machinery operators and drivers among the occupations most at risk.
Injuries from hazardous equipment not only have devastating consequences for individuals but can also escalate operational costs, disrupt productivity, and lead to regulatory penalties for businesses.
Industries with Hazardous Equipment Risks
Hazardous equipment is prevalent across a wide range of industries, each presenting unique risks and challenges. Some of the key industries impacted include:
Manufacturing:Â High usage of machinery like presses, conveyors, and mixers increases the risk of entanglement, crushing injuries, and amputations.
Agriculture:Â Equipment such as augers, harvesters, and balers can cause severe injuries if not properly guarded or maintained.
Construction:Â Tools like power saws, drills, and concrete mixers present significant hazards, including lacerations, amputations, and dislocations.
Mining:Â Heavy machinery, including crushers and rotating equipment, poses risks of entrapment, crushing, and equipment failure.
Food Processing:Â Industrial mixers and slicers carry risks of scalping, limb injuries, and entanglement.
Potential Incidents and Scenarios
Equipment-Related Injuries
Injuries involving hazardous equipment can vary depending on the type of machinery, operating conditions, and the surrounding environment. Common scenarios include:
Entanglement in Rotating Machinery:Â Hair, clothing, or body parts becoming caught in unguarded moving parts, leading to scalping or amputations.
Crushing Injuries:Â Workers being caught between equipment components or pinned by heavy machinery.
Dislocations or Fractures:Â Resulting from improper handling of equipment or malfunctioning safety features.
Degloving and Amputations:Â Caused by sharp edges, rotating machinery, or exposed mechanical components.
Overridden Safety Interlocks:Â Intentional or accidental disabling of safety features, leading to severe injuries.
Escalation of Incidents Without Adequate Response
When incidents occur, inadequate first aid or emergency response can exacerbate the situation. For example:
Uncontrolled Bleeding:Â Amputations or deep lacerations may result in fatal blood loss if not immediately addressed.
Delayed Emergency Access:Â Poor emergency planning or remote work locations can increase response times, worsening outcomes.
Constructing Your Critical Risk Bowtie Analysis
A critical risk bowtie analysis provides a structured approach to understanding and managing hazardous equipment risks.
Step 1: Define Your Unwanted Event - Centre of the Bowtie
The first step is to identify your unwanted event, which is the critical scenario or grouping you aim to manage, such as worker exposed to rotating parts. This event represents the central focus of your analysis—the point where risk must be prevented or mitigated. Select an unwanted event that could lead to the highest consequence outcomes in your context.
Step 2: Identify Causes (Threats) - Left-Hand-Side of the Bowtie
Map out direct and likely causes, such as inadequate guarding, lack of operator training, or failure to use safety implements.
By focusing on specific causes, you ensure that your controls are tailored and relevant to managing the risk.
Step 3: Identify Consequences (Impacts) - Right-Hand-Side of the Bowtie
Outline the potential impacts, including injury, fatalities, and operational disruption.
Like causes, keeping consequences specific ensures the analysis remains focused and actionable.
Step 4: Map Preventing and Mitigating Controls:Â
Once you have identified causes and consequences, it’s time to map out controls. Controls are the measures implemented to either prevent the unwanted event from occurring or reduce its impact if it does. Start with identifying what controls you already have in place managing the critical risk, then you can start to identify gaps and opportunities to strengthen your causal pathway with proposed or new controls. Controls are acts, objects or technical systems. Try to call out the actual control, not the document that manages the control.
Preventing Controls
These controls address the causes (threats) on the left side of the bowtie.
Their purpose is to stop the unwanted event from happening.
Think of them as barriers that block or interrupt the progression from a cause to the unwanted event.
Examples include:
Electrical Isolation: Lockout-tagout systems to de-energise moving parts before work.
Equipment Guarding: Guarding is in place that adequately protects people from moving parts.
Interlocks: Automatic shutdown of equipment when guards are not in place or body part is detected.
Mitigating Controls
These controls address the consequences (impacts) on the right side of the bowtie.
Their purpose is to reduce the severity or extent of the impacts if the unwanted event occurs.
They act as safety nets that limit harm, damage, or loss.
Examples include:
Emergency Stop: Emergency isolators are in place (within reach of the operator) to minimise harm.
Emergency Response: Injured persons are provided first aid care as soon as possible.
Emergency Response Equipment: Adequate first aid equipment, trauma response and trained responders.
By clearly distinguishing preventing and mitigating controls, the bowtie ensures you’re addressing both the likelihood and the consequences of the event.
Why Focus and Specificity Matter
The success of a bowtie analysis hinges on its ability to identify specific controls that effectively manage risks. If the causes or consequences are too broad, you risk overlooking critical controls or diluting their effectiveness. A focused analysis ensures that every identified control is targeted, actionable, and essential.
By following these steps, you can construct a comprehensive bowtie analysis that visualises your critical risks and the pathways to managing them.
Identifying Critical Controls
Critical controls are the cornerstone of managing risks in a bowtie analysis. These are the controls that, if absent, ineffective, or failed, would have a significant impact on the likelihood of an unwanted event occurring or on the severity of its consequences. Proper identification and selection of critical controls ensure that resources are focused on the most important barriers to risk.
Preventing Critical Controls
These critical controls address the causes of incidents and aim to stop them before they occur. Examples include:
Safety Interlocks and Guards:Â Ensuring machinery has automatic shutoffs or physical barriers.
Routine Maintenance Programs:Â Regular inspection and upkeep of equipment to prevent failures.
Mitigating Critical Controls
These controls reduce the impact of incidents if they do occur. Examples include:
Emergency Stop Mechanisms:Â Quick access to shut down machinery during an incident.
First Aid and Emergency Response:Â Trained personnel and accessible supplies to handle severe injuries.
Key Considerations for Identifying Critical Controls
Critical controls must be effective, measurable, and reliable to ensure they perform as intended.
Avoid overloading the analysis with non-critical controls. Focus only on those that significantly influence the risk pathways or outcomes.
By selecting critical controls with this structured approach, you create a robust system that prioritises the most impactful barriers to risk.
Critical Control Management
To ensure critical controls remain effective, businesses should develop Critical Control Performance Standards and implement a robust Critical Control Verification (CCV) Process.
Performance Standards:Â Clearly define objectives, performance requirements, and failure modes for each critical control.
Verification Activities:Â Regularly test controls for implementation, effectiveness, and resilience against potential failures.
Frequency of Verification:Â Base verification frequency on exposure levels and the number of locations where the control is implemented.
Critical control management is an essential component of effective risk management. It ensures that the most important controls in your system are clearly understood, properly implemented, and rigorously maintained to prevent or mitigate high-consequence events. This process involves understanding each critical control’s requirements, verifying their effectiveness, and managing their performance over time.
Critical Control Performance Requirements
To effectively manage critical controls, it is crucial to understand their performance requirements. This involves developing a Critical Control Performance Standard that clearly defines the expectations and parameters for each control. The performance standard should include the following key elements:
Objectives of the Critical Control
Define the purpose of each control, such as isolating equipment immediately when emergency stop is activated.
Performance Requirements
Define how the control must perform to meet its objectives. This includes specifying measurable criteria, such as equipment remains shut down until it is manually restarted.
Critical Operating Parameters
Identify operational thresholds or conditions under which the control must remain effective, such as equipment shuts down within 0.1 second of activating emergency stop.
Failure Modes
Outline potential mechanisms of failure and how they might occur (e.g., wear and tear, human error, environmental factors, button/interlock malfunctions).
Training Requirements
Specify the knowledge and skills required for personnel to operate, inspect, and maintain the critical control effectively.
Maintenance and Inspection Requirements
Detail the frequency and type of maintenance activities, as well as inspection protocols to ensure ongoing functionality.
Critical Control Verification (CCV) Process
The Critical Control Verification (CCV) process is vital for ensuring that critical controls are implemented, effective, and not at risk of failure. This process typically involves three primary activities:
Verifying Critical Controls Are in Place
In-Field Observations:Â Confirm that critical controls have been physically implemented in the workplace. For example, safety features have been inspected and tested before use, PPE is being worn, or procedures are present and accessible.
Verifying Critical Controls Are Effective
In-Field Testing:Â Test the functionality of critical controls to ensure they perform as intended. For example, attempt to re-start equipment (if safe to do so).
Verifying Critical Controls Are Not at Risk of Failure
Maintenance Programs:Â Ensure regular servicing, repairs, and inspections are conducted to prevent degradation or failure.
Audits and Certifications:Â Use independent or internal audits to confirm compliance with performance standards and identify potential risks.
Detecting Failure Mechanisms:Â Monitor and address early signs of failure, such as wear and tear, system alerts, or operational deviations.
Defining Verification Frequency
The frequency of verification activities should be based on the level of exposure and the number of areas where the critical control is implemented. Consider the following factors:
High-Exposure Areas
For controls in high-risk or high-frequency areas (e.g., environments with older equipment that requires frequent repairs), verification should occur more frequently to account for the increased likelihood of failure or incident.
Multiple Implementation Sites
When a control is implemented across numerous locations (e.g., operations with multiple hazardous equipment sources), verification activities should be scaled to ensure all instances are regularly checked.
Risk-Based Scheduling
Use the severity of potential consequences and historical performance data to determine appropriate intervals for verification (e.g., daily, weekly, or monthly checks).
Why Critical Control Management Matters
By systematically managing critical controls, organisations can ensure that these essential barriers remain functional, reliable, and aligned with their intended objectives. Performance standards provide a clear understanding of how controls should operate, while verification processes offer confidence that controls are effective and ready to respond when needed.
This structured approach ensures that risks are not only managed but also proactively mitigated, contributing to a safer and more resilient workplace.
Benefits of Continuous Improvement
Following incidents, a thorough review of the risk bowtie and critical controls should be conducted.
Learnings from these events should inform updates to:
Risk Bowties and Scenarios
Critical Control Selection and Documentation
Training Programs and Emergency Procedures
By continuously improving your approach, you can prevent repeat incidents and maintain safer, more efficient operations.
Managing the Critical Risks of Hazardous Equipment
Managing hazardous equipment risks is crucial for protecting workers and maintaining operational continuity. Severe injuries, such as degloving, scalping, and amputations, highlight the importance of robust safety measures, comprehensive training, and effective emergency response planning.
To support your organisation, we offer the Hazardous Equipment Critical Risk Package, a tailored solution to help you manage these complex risks confidently and effectively.
What’s Included in the Package:
Tailored Approach: Customised to your industry and hazardous equipment risks.
Comprehensive Bowtie Analysis: Detailed mapping of causes, consequences, and controls.
Critical Control Identification and Selection: Tools to identify and prioritise critical controls.
Critical Control Performance Standard Document Suite: Objectives, performance requirements, and training needs.
Critical Control Verification Document Suite: Observation and testing tools to ensure control effectiveness.
Consultation and Implementation Guide: Step-by-step guidance for seamless integration.
Worker Toolbox Talk: Training resources for effective risk management.
This package is tailored to a single bowtie analysis, focusing on well-defined scenarios to ensure precise and actionable outcomes. Click below to take the first step in confidently managing your hazardous equipment risks.
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