TBD

Authors

  • Charles Hoes Hoes Engineering

Keywords:

system safety, risk, severity, objective, subjective, FTA, ALARA

Abstract

I have noticed that industries “new” to the concepts of system safety seem to have trouble understanding the implications and meaning of the risk assessments that are performed as part of a system safety analysis. For us old hands in the profession, these concepts are second nature and, therefore, we tend not to discuss them. I think that maybe it is worth revisiting these basic concepts from time to time. Who knows, maybe we (I) have been off base for all these years, and we might all learn something new from a discussion.

The basic definition of risk — a combination of the severity of a mishap and the probability that the mishap will occur — seems clear, especially when combined with the definition of a “mishap” as “an event or series of events resulting in unintentional death, injury, occupational illness, damage to or loss of equipment or property, or damage to the environment” (as defined in MIL-STD-882E).

Apparently, risk also has something to do with unintended negative impacts, the severity of those impacts and the likelihood that these negative impacts will occur. This is pretty close to an everyday use of the term. It is not quite as obvious as it looks, however, when attempting to assign a risk to an identified bad outcome.

Author Biography

Charles Hoes, Hoes Engineering

Charles “Charlie” Hoes began his consulting business in 1984, providing system safety engineering services to defense, aerospace, semiconductor and general industry. During that time he has become a P.E. in Safety in the State of California, a Certified Safety Profession (CSP) with a specialty System Safety Practices and earned a Master of Science degree in Safety from University of Southern California. In 1988 Charlie incorporated his business under the name of “Hoes Engineering, Inc.” He has many years of experience volunteering in support of the International System Safety Society, filling many positions including past President of the Sacramento Chapter, the Virtual Chapter, and the System Safety Society. He is a past technical editor of the System Society’s journal Hazard Prevention (re-named to be the Journal of System Safety), as well as authoring an ongoing feature article of the Journal of System Safety called “TBD” where he discusses current concerns with the system safety profession.

In his new role of being semi-retired, Charlie continues to actively work with the System Safety Society as well as participating in a few “for hire” and volunteer projects that are particularly interesting, or important, for a variety of reasons. He is enjoying the ability of being a bit more selective with regard to projects that he accepts.

TBD

Downloads

Published

2014-10-01

How to Cite

Hoes, C. (2014). TBD. Journal of System Safety, 50(3), 6–8. Retrieved from https://jsystemsafety.com/index.php/jss/article/view/176

Issue

Section

Columns and Perspectives