Weathering Any Storm with Risk Management

Risk has become a buzzword in almost every industry.  It is the foundation for producing safe, quality products and services.  Does implementing Risk Management Software sound like an overwhelming task?  Well, it’s not.  We use risk management in our everyday lives.  With winter in full force, a good example of everyday risk management springs to mind.

Let’s consider this scenario.  A winter storm is heading toward your town—they are predicting between12 to 16 inches of snow.  While you can never be certain that it will be this level of accumulation, you start to prepare yourself anyway for this potential storm.  When planning for the worst, you ask yourself a series of important questions.

While not the most critical question, everyone living and working in the snowbelt knows the first question is typically “can I make it to work?”

So your first risk assessment includes determining:

Then you start to consider the critical questions, should the storm prove to be as severe as predicted:

What if I lose power?

• You can keep warm with a fireplace, generator, gas stove, or lots of blankets.
• You can keep your food from perishing by limiting opening the refrigerator/freezer, placing food outside or in a garage to keep cold.
• You can get light at night with candles, gas/battery lanterns, flashlights (or you can go to bed early).

Preventing Risk with the QMS: Before the “storm” so to speak, organizations put preventive actions in place to help mitigate risk. Organizations will use Quality Management System (QMS) processes such as Audit Management to prepare for potential events and build out a risk plan based on the results.

Being prepared for a power loss ahead of time will make the experience much more tolerable if it should happen to occur.

Lastly, should the storm last longer than anticipated you’ll want make sure you have sufficient supplies to see you through. So you ask yourself—do I have enough food and water?

• Consider what you currently have on hand and what you should purchase prior to the storm:

• Bottled water

• Non-perishable foods—canned and dried foods

• Perishable foods that don’t need refrigeration—fruit, vegetables, bread

Controlling Risk with the QMS: Organizations use processes like Document Control and Training to help ensure prevention. By controlling documents, and ensuring proper employee training, you will effectively reduce risk of internal hazards—outdated documents and poor employee performance due to ineffective training.

What can you get during or after the storm if travel is limited?

• Can you get a delivery of groceries or restaurant food?

• What stores and restaurants are open within walking distance?

Reducing Impact of Risk with the QMS:  Regardless of how much preparation you do beforehand, you will eventually be faced with an adverse event. If you can devise a methodological plan to take action on an adverse event that has occurred anyway, you will be able to reduce impact of its risk.  In other words, expect (and prepare for) the unexpected.

Ultimately, the QMS's Risk Management feature allows you to see where risk lies so you can proactively address it before it spreads to other areas of your organization. In Enterprise Risk Management, potential risks are identified; often through a complaint or adverse event—much like our weather example above.  From there, you can evaluate the probability and likelihood of that event occurring and put measures in place to mitigate or lessen the risk.

Understanding and preparing for any adverse situation is key to risk management. Whether you are assessing risk in your daily life or for your job, it is important to ask the right questions and determine pre-defined decisions and actions to ensure proper risk management.