Of the four pillars1 of a safety management system (SMS), safety risk management is perhaps the most practical and progressive, as it represents precisely the response that will be given to the identified hazards to which an organization is subjected.
Managing risks is a never-ending process that challenges an organization to constantly search for possible sources of hazards, and to devise often innovative ways to reduce the risks associated with them. However, risk management also entails constant reassessment, since implemented barriers may become additional sources of hazards, and organizations may undergo changes that can render previously adopted risk-mitigating actions obsolete or ineffective. Finally, risk management cannot succeed in a vacuum. This means that risk management tasks must not be detached from a company’s business objectives, and, as much as possible, they must help the company achieve its financial goals without allowing safety to be negle…
