Bowties in Risk Management: 5 Things You Need to Know 

Developing a risk management strategy is a complex task for organizations due to several reasons, including the complexity of the risk environment, uncertainty, ambiguity, costs, difficulty in reaching consensus, and lack of prioritization.

However, there are tools and methods that organizations can use to overcome these challenges.

One such tool is the bowtie diagram, which is a simple, visual method for risk assessment that can give organizations a snapshot of threats, top events, hazards, consequences, risks, barriers, and their relations in a single diagram while, at the same time, maintaining the integrity of barriers.  

Although it is designed to handle complex analyses, the power and beauty of the bowtie diagram lie in the simplicity of its visual format. This makes it easy to communicate and understand critical information about threats, top events, hazards, barriers, and accident risks.

Its clear visual representation of all the essential elements of risk management, from root causes to consequences, impacts, and risk controls and mitigations, allows you to make informed decisions to improve safety and protect the interests of your organization. 

In this blog post, we will explore the world of bowtie analysis, investigating its uses, advantages, and potential disadvantages. So, are you ready to take your risk management process to the next level with bowtie analysis? Here are the five things you need to know. 

Bowtie analysis is a barrier-based risk management tool that uses a visual diagram to identify, analyze, and manage high-risk accident scenarios. It provides an overview of accident scenarios and the barriers put in place to either prevent them from happening or mitigate the consequences.  

Specific to one hazard only, the bowtie method helps manage both the accident risks and the barriers by identifying which barriers are more critical.  

Bowtie diagrams are created for major accident hazards, as not all hazards are equal in terms of their potential accident impact.

That is why, before you begin making your bowtie diagrams, major accident hazards must be identified.

This identification is done by performing PHA (Process Hazard Analysis) studies such as HAZID (Hazard Identification), HAZOP (Hazard and Operability), LOPA (Layers of Protection Analysis), etc., and preparing the major accident hazards list based on the findings of those earlier studies.

By prioritizing and focusing on the risks that matter most to your organization, you can distribute resources effectively and address critical areas of concern.  

The name “bowtie” derives from the shape of the diagram, which resembles that traditional type of necktie.

It is divided into three parts: the left side, the right side, and the center. The left side of the bowtie represents the causes of the top event, while the right side represents the consequences.

The center of the bowtie represents the top event itself. The left and right sides of the bowtie are larger than the center because many causes can lead to a top event, while a top event can have many consequences. 

The bowtie diagram includes the following components: 

Let’s illustrate the concept of a bowtie method using a relatable real-life situation. Imagine you’re a chef cooking in a restaurant kitchen. You know that cooking involves various accident risks like a kitchen fire.

To effectively manage this risk, you can use the bowtie method. Here’s how it works in the context of fire safety in the kitchen:  

Conduct a Bowtie workshop to enhance the Bowtie analysis process.

It all starts with leveraging existing data on risks and barriers to create a visual representation of threats, hazards, consequences, risks, and barriers.  

Prior to the Bowtie workshop, the facilitator and scribe will prepopulate draft Bowtie diagrams with the findings from previous PHA studies.

Then, the facilitator, scribe, and different stakeholders take part in a meeting to discuss and identify additional threats, consequences, and barriers. This collaborative workshop provides an opportunity for different stakeholders to contribute their expertise and insights to the analysis process, ensuring that all relevant risks and barriers are considered. 

During the workshop, a series of meetings are held to review, complete and refine the draft bowties until they are approved. This iterative process ensures a thorough analysis of the risks involved and allows for comprehensive risk management. 

The Bowtie method was crucial in understanding and managing the causes and consequences of accidents like the Piper Alpha disaster and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.  

Piper Alpha was an oil production platform that exploded in 1988, resulting in the loss of 167 lives. After the disaster, the Bowtie method was used to analyze the causes and consequences of the accident, highlighting the potential factors that contributed to the disaster, such as equipment failure, inadequate maintenance, and communication breakdowns.

The Bowtie diagram helped investigators identify the critical control measures and mitigating barriers lacking or ineffective in preventing the incident. That led to significant improvements in safety practices and regulations in the offshore oil and gas industry. 

The bowtie analysis is more than a risk assessment tool used by safety departments.

It also benefits the rest of the organization. Bowties are an element of safety management. However, like any risk assessment tool, bowtie analysis has limitations. It is important to be aware of these limitations to ensure that bowtie diagrams are used effectively. 

At Cenosco, we know that developing effective risk management strategies for an organization can be challenging, especially as risks become more complex.  

Effective risk communication is an essential component of any industrial safety program. In our application, bowtie diagrams enhance communication between functional safety engineers and the process safety department, leading to a safer industrial site. 

To confidently navigate the complexities of risk management and safeguard your organization’s operations and objectives, it is important to embrace a fresh perspective and utilize powerful tools such as bowtie analysis. For that reason, our IMS SIS (Safety Instrumented System) tool utilizes the advantages of the bowtie diagram to visualize HAZOP analyses and existing LOPA studies.  

In simple terms, the bowtie diagram in IMS SIS is a means of analyzing risk strategy. It helps you see potential hazards and their consequences clearly and visually, allowing you to plan and manage them effectively. 

Discover the potential of bowtie analysis to revolutionize your risk management approach. Request a demo today and unlock the benefits of this powerful tool.