Engineering Risk Management (pdf)

Running Head: ENGINEERING RISK MANAGEMENT
Engineeri
ng risk
managem
ent
May 4
201
8 Case
study of
different
man-made
disasters

ENGINEERRING RISK MANAGEMENT 1

ENGINEERRING RISK MANAGEMENT 2
Executive summary
The complexity of the industrial activities and production of chemical products crossing
the chemical industry promotes the emergence of risks that must be considered in the
decision making process for the organizational operations. Today risk management is very
important in the era of technology. The advancement of the technology making it easier to
work with the help of technology, it is providing opportunities to go beyond the possibilities
and achieve what we want but at the same operating such technology is complex too. This
complexity of technology sometimes may results in huge accidents or disasters. Such
accidents are hazardous for both the human beings as well as the environment. In this report
there is a complete analysis about such accidents happened in some of the plants related to
chemical industry. These accidents harmed mankind as well as the environment abruptly. To
deal with such accidents we need effective risk management and a communication plan to
mitigate these problems and use them for efficient output. For this assessment, this report is
prepared to introduce the mistakes which were resulted in form of man-made disasters in past
decades. This report provides the essential information about the different accidents took
place in past and their risk management assessment. The risk management assessment of
these accidents has shown the major causes and possible mitigating operation that could be
practice to prevent happening of such accidents in future.

ENGINEERRING RISK MANAGEMENT 3
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Risk management.......................................................................................................................5
Case study 1: Bhopal Gas Leakage (1984)................................................................................5
Cause......................................................................................................................................6
Risk management: Bhopal gas tragedy......................................................................................6
Risk assessment..........................................................................................................................8
Identification of the risk.....................................................................................................8
Assessment of the risk........................................................................................................9
Controlling the risk............................................................................................................9
Case study 2: Texas City Refinery Explosion (2005, USA)......................................................9
Causes..................................................................................................................................10
Risk management: Texas City Refinery explosion..................................................................11
Risk assessment........................................................................................................................12
Identifying the risk...............................................................................................................12
Assessment of risk................................................................................................................12
Risk controlling....................................................................................................................13
Case study 3: Deep-water Horizon Oil Disaster......................................................................13
Causes..................................................................................................................................14
Risk management of Deep-water Horizon Oil Disaster...........................................................15
Risk assessment........................................................................................................................15

ENGINEERRING RISK MANAGEMENT 4
Risk identification................................................................................................................16
Risk assessment....................................................................................................................16
Controlling the risk..............................................................................................................17
Conclusion................................................................................................................................17
References................................................................................................................................18

ENGINEERRING RISK MANAGEMENT 5
Introduction
In the world of progression, Risk has become a daily presence for individuals, they
these are or not involved in economic activities. Risk may be for the individual or sometimes
it may be for a group of people. Risks affecting higher number of people called disasters.
These disasters may be natural or man-made. In the world of science these disasters lead to
serious economic losses or casualties (Lee, Park, & Shin, 2009). These risks can be mitigated
by the use of effective risk management system for their assessment and mitigation. In this
report three case studies are discussed about their different aspects for the risk management
assessment and mitigation. Three case studies, this report is discussing, are 1) Bhopal Gas
Disaster (1984, India), 2) Texas City Refinery Explosion (2005, USA), 3) Deep Water
Horizon Oil Disaster (Gulf of Mexico 2010). All the three incidents were man-made disaster
and result of a poor management of assessment and mitigation for the risks associated with
the incidents.