Bringing safety risk management to life
Bowtie methodology
A Bowtie is a diagram that visualises the risk you are dealing with in a simple picture. The diagram is shaped like a bow-tie, creating a clear differentiation between proactive and reactive risk management. The power of a bowtie diagram is that it gives you an overview of multiple scenarios. In short, it provides a simple, visual explanation of a risk that would be difficult to explain otherwise.
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Learning from incidents is often a challenge. One of the main reasons is the incident analysis does not provide an adequate basis for high quality, realistic recommendations that will change the organisation for the better.
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Auditing is an invaluable way of gaining insight into barrier quality and effectiveness. A pre, rather then post-mortem. Use the bowtie to "check" the quality of the barriers, because assuming barriers that have not failed are effective is dangerous.
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The UK CAA ran an extensive project to create a set of template aviation bowties. They are a very useful reference and a great starting place for your bowtie project.
CAA Significant 7 Bowties
CAA Significant 7 Bowties