Analyzing risk and catastrophic accidents: Using LOPA and human factors to improve safety in generic projects

Risk assessment and identification in the early stages of any project is critical to the success of that project from time, budget and cost prespective. Identifying unacceptable risks and making provisions to mitigate those, can reduce the uncertainty in the project and ensure its smooth completion and closure. Various techniques have been developed over time to identify and quantify risks. Inspite of all the available research on risk management tools, accidents continue to happen and projects consistently fail.;The objective of this study is to first, determine the generic risks that can be encountered by a project. A list of generic risks will be prepared and validated by surveying managers from various industries. These risks will be prioritized to provide managers with a generic risk matrix which can be readily applied to cross-industry projects. The second part of the study involves the use of Layers of Protection Analysis (LOPA), to analyze two past catastrophic accidents. The financial industry and the Space Shuttle program will be considered to produce the required analysis. LOPA models will be created to expose shortcomings in the failed projects and provide lessons to be learned in order to avoid future disasters. This research will provide a unique direction and a new tool for project managers to deploy this technique of building protection layers to prevent, protect and/or mitigate risks encountered by their system/project. The dissertation includes three journal papers, one published in the Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, one accepted in Engineering Management Journal and one under review.