Development of a hazard and operability-based method for identifying safety management vulnerabilities in high risk systems

In recent years there has been widespread acknowledgement of the significance of managerial and organisational failures in the causation of accidents. The activities and processes involved in managing safety have come under increasing scrutiny via the development of approaches for safety management and safety culture assessment. This paper argues, however, that current approaches do not fully or explicitly address how safety management systems will actually fail in practice. Therefore, the Safety Culture Hazard and Operability (SCHAZOP) approach is described as a means by which specific safety management vulnerabilities, and targeted resolution of such vulnerabilities can be identified. The development of the method, examples of its application, and the way forward with this methodology are discussed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.