From threat to consequence, with the barriers in between made visible
Turns the bowtie study into records: the top event at its centre, threats on the left, consequences on the right, and the preventive and recovery barriers in between.
This page is written for teams that want to take risk assessment beyond the matrix.
What it does
The value of a bowtie is not in the drawing but in every barrier having an owner and a measure of how real it is. The module makes the barrier a record.
- The top event stays at the centreEach bowtie is built around a single top event, with threats and consequences attached to it.
- Every barrier has an ownerPreventive and recovery barriers are to be recorded together with the person accountable for them.
- Does the barrier actually workBarrier validity is followed as its own record, so that a barrier with no test or inspection behind it can be told apart.
- Escalation factors kept apartThe factors that weaken a barrier, and the second-line barriers set against them, are to be shown.
- In the same chain as the risk recordsThe bowtie is not a study detached from the workplace's risk records.
How it connects
A bowtie is read together with the choice of method and the risk records.
- Risk assessment methodsThe reference page that compares the methods.
- What bowtie analysis isA short account of the method and when it is chosen.
- Preventive and recovery barriersThe difference between the two kinds of barrier and where each sits.
- How HAZOP output feeds a bowtieHow the two methods feed one another.
- Risk assessment moduleThe hazard and control records a bowtie feeds on.
Not a drawing, a barrier record
In many places a bowtie becomes a slide: carefully drawn, shown once and closed. The real work of the method is to ask whether there is a record behind each barrier.
The scope therefore treats the diagram as an output and the barriers as records that are followed.
Let us talk about your bowtie work
Let us look together at the top events you work on and at where the barriers are followed.
Get in touch