Guide

Where does the Fine-Kinney method differ from a 5x5?

A three-axis method: alongside likelihood and severity, frequency of exposure enters as a separate variable.

What the third axis changes

Fine-Kinney builds risk as the product of three variables: probability, frequency of exposure, and severity of outcome. Making exposure its own axis separates two hazards that a two-axis arrangement would drop into the same cell.

Where it is preferred

Where duration is decisive: working a full shift on a noisy line is not the same as a few minutes of chemical exposure a day. In production, maintenance and field work this distinction usually changes the decision.

What to watch

The product of three factors spans a wide numeric range; band boundaries are read from the method's own definition and are not loosened to suit a workplace. Shifting a band shows the same hazard with a different urgency a year later and breaks comparability.

In Optifora

The risk assessment module takes all three axes separately, computes the band, and shows the same hazard's score from earlier assessments side by side. When the method changes, the old record is not deleted; which assessment used which method stays in the record.

  1. Choose the method up frontChoose the method and record why before starting; switching mid-assessment breaks comparability.
  2. Set the probabilityScore the probability of the event against the method's own steps.
  3. Set the exposureEnter how often the worker meets the hazard as a separate value.
  4. Set the severityScore the seriousness of the outcome, taking the worst reasonable outcome as the basis.
  5. Read the bandRead the band the product of the three values falls into and take the urgency from there.
  6. Tie the control to a taskRecord the control with an owner and a date; re-score the residual risk at closure.

Manage this in Optifora

Optifora is not a single program but a compliance platform assembled from modules. The catalogue states which module is ready today and which is on the roadmap.

See what Optifora is