In my view, the Risk Assessment should never be treated as a 'get out of jail' card or panacea. Instead, it is only a starting point for a safe design and should be done near the beginning of a project, not the end. I agree with what Rich says, I've seen a lot of subjective assessments by cross-functional teams, with variability based on personal risk tolerance or risk aversion. There are any number of articles pointing to why humans are not very good at assessing risk (Google search <https://www.google.com/search?q=humans+are+not+very+good+at+assessing+risk> ).
When using FMEA for risk assessment, I always stress that the RPN factors of probability of occurrence, severity, and detection be quantified separately without regard to the other factors, not an easy task. There is also the problem of RPN vs Criticality (severity x occurrence). If using the RPN, there is the possibility that Detection can dilute the RPN number to a point below the threshold for action. So in my view, Criticality alone should be used to trigger action. Kenneth Ross wrote a very good article last month on Navigating the Safety Hierarchy; for me, it was an excellent refresher on how I should use risk assessment more effectively ( https://incompliancemag.com/article/navigating-the-safety-hierarchy/). -Doug Douglas E Powell Laporte, Colorado USA (UTC -07:00) Mountain Time (US-MST) On Fri, Feb 11, 2022 at 11:52 AM Richard Nute <ri...@ieee.org> wrote: > > > > > I would say “…risk assessment WILL have variants…” > > > > The risk assessment process is subjective. If you perform a risk > assessment on an ordinary extension cord, you can find that it is > marginally safe. > > > > Rich > > > > *From:* scott...@gmail.com <scott...@gmail.com> > *Sent:* Friday, February 11, 2022 9:14 AM > *To:* EMC-PSTC@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG > *Subject:* Re: [PSES] EN 62368-1 : 2020 Ed 3 > > > > Hi Charlie, > > > > It is pity. The risk assessment may have variants and inconsistence > amongst test engineers and make the compliance more difficult. > > > > Regards, > > > > Scott > > > > > - > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > > This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc > discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to < > emc-p...@ieee.org> > > All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: > http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html > > Attachments are not permitted but the IEEE PSES Online Communities site at > http://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/ can be used for graphics (in > well-used formats), large files, etc. > > Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ > Instructions: http://www.ieee-pses.org/list.html (including how to > unsubscribe) <http://www.ieee-pses.org/list.html> > List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html > > For help, send mail to the list administrators: > Scott Douglas <sdoug...@ieee.org> > Mike Cantwell <mcantw...@ieee.org> > > For policy questions, send mail to: > Jim Bacher <j.bac...@ieee.org> > David Heald <dhe...@gmail.com> > -- -Doug Douglas E Powell Laporte, Colorado USA doug...@gmail.com http://www.linkedin.com/in/dougp01 - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <emc-p...@ieee.org> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html Attachments are not permitted but the IEEE PSES Online Communities site at http://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/ can be used for graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://www.ieee-pses.org/list.html (including how to unsubscribe) List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <sdoug...@ieee.org> Mike Cantwell <mcantw...@ieee.org> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: <j.bac...@ieee.org> David Heald: <dhe...@gmail.com>
