Hazard and Risk Assessment
We run the initial hazard and risk assessment that identifies hazardous events and the required risk reduction to IEC 61511 1 clause 8
What this element is and why it matters
Phase 1 of the IEC 61511 lifecycle is the hazard and risk assessment, the systematic identification of hazardous events and the determination of the required risk reduction. Our team uses HAZOP, LOPA, fault trees and event trees to establish a defensible scenario set and a clear risk profile for your facility before any safety instrumented system allocation decisions are made.
Individual significance for organisations
Without a rigorous Phase 1 every downstream safety integrity level allocation rests on an incomplete understanding of the hazards. Facilities that invest in deep hazard and risk assessment catch the credible worst case scenarios that genuinely drive safety instrumented function design, and that is exactly where we focus.
Contribution to Functional Safety Lifecycle Implementation
Phase 1 produces the hazard register that Phase 2 allocation consumes. It also feeds back into your process safety information and connects to the wider process hazard analysis cycle through the five year revalidation triggers.
What compliant execution looks like
How we implement this element
A focused six step methodology calibrated to deliver hazard and risk assessment as a working capability rather than a documented compliance artefact.
We define the unit boundary and gather your process safety information to paragraph d of OSHA 1910.119, and we align it with the operating envelope and your process hazard analysis records.
We run HAZOP to IEC 61882, supplement it with what if and checklist methods where they help, and document the hazardous events.
We quantify consequence severity against your tolerable thresholds for safety, environment and asset, and we align it with your corporate risk matrix.
We estimate the frequency and consequence pairs and identify the scenarios that need further risk reduction beyond your existing independent protection layers.
We compare the residual risk against your site specific tolerable frequency and identify the safety instrumented function candidates for the clause 9 allocation.
We issue the hazard and risk assessment report with the hazard register, the required risk reduction and the inputs that Phase 2 needs for safety instrumented function allocation.
Element implementation flow chart
A decision gated workflow that shows the actual sequence of activities from initiation through steady state operation, with key decision points highlighted.
What we produce
- A hazard register that records the hazardous events and their consequences
- Risk reduction requirements for each safety instrumented function candidate
- The Phase 1 hazard and risk assessment report
- Cause and consequence and event tree scenario records
- An independent protection layer credit log with the independence basis per scenario
- A tolerable risk criteria sheet that calibrates frequency against consequence
Where execution fails
- A HAZOP team that is missing the operator perspective
- Tolerable risk targets that are never calibrated to your site context
- A revalidation cycle that slips past five years
- Initiating event frequencies adopted from generic data without any site validation
Codes this element is built on
Explore related elements in this framework
Functional Safety Lifecycle Implementation full element index
Talk to us about implementing Hazard and Risk Assessment
We can scope this element implementation against your facility, regulatory context, and existing management system maturity, then integrate it with the other Functional Safety Lifecycle Implementation elements you already operate.