Risk guidelines as a risk management tool

Quantitative risk analysis (QRA) is a valuable tool for understanding and managing risk in the chemical process industry. QRA is most useful when used to evaluate the impact of design alternatives on facility risk (comparing the risk of one design option to one or more alternatives). QRA also determines the major contributors to facility risk so that efforts to manage and reduce that risk can be directed to areas where they will have the largest impact and be the most cost effective. However, it is inevitable that the use of a tool which generates a numerical estimate of risk will raise questions as to the tolerability of that estimated risk. The use of quantitative risk!guidelines as one tool in the risk management process will be discussed.