A Systematic Methodology for Developing Bowtie in Risk Assessment: Application to Borescope Inspection

Abstract

<jats:p>Background—Bowtie analysis is a broadly used tool in risk management to identify root causes and consequences of hazards and show barriers that can prevent or mitigate the events to happen. Limitations of the method are reliance on judgement and an ad hoc development process. Purpose—Systematic approaches are needed to identify threats and consequences, and to ascertain mitigation and prevention barriers. Results—A new conceptual framework is introduced by combining the Bowtie method with the 6M structure of Ishikawa to categorise the threats, consequences and barriers. The method is developed for visual inspection of gas turbine components, for which an example is provided. Originality—Provision of a more systematic methodology has the potential to result in more comprehensive Bowtie risk assessments, with less chance of serious omissions. The method is expected to find application in the broader industry, and to support operators who are non-risk experts but have application-specific knowledge, when performing Bowtie risk assessment.</jats:p>

Assessment of the Effect of Cleanliness on the Visual Inspection of Aircraft Engine Blades: An Eye Tracking Study

“…In [ 15 ], additional factors impacting the inspection performance were gathered, which were grouped into task-related, individual, environmental, organisational and social factors. More recently, Aust and Pons [ 21 , 22 ] applied 6 M categorisation to group impact factors that affect borescope inspection. While the importance of those factors is generally accepted, it remains difficult to quantify them.…”

Methodology for Evaluating Risk of Visual Inspection Tasks of Aircraft Engine Blades

“…Hence, the detectability or manifestation is a factor that needs to be included. See related work with Bowtie analysis [89]. We identified three primary factors: criticality, severity, and detectability.…”

“…We determined the contextual factors by applying a Bowtie analysis [89], which in turn relied on discussion with experts. Hence, we propose three contextual factors for visual detection:…”

“…Likewise, it is applicable to any other process within the aviation maintenance domain and beyond. It might be of particular interest to other error-prone high-reliability organisations (HROs), including nuclear power, oil and gas, mining, or healthcare [89], as the understanding of risk and safety in those industries is of utmost importance. This generic framework not only allows for the integration of human factors into the well-known consequence × likelihood risk equation, but also supports the standardisation of risk assessment across different organisations and industries.…”

Special Issue: Civil and Military Airworthiness: Recent Developments and Challenges (Volume II)

“…This Special Issue is focused on safety themes with implications on airworthiness management. It offers a diverse set of analyses on aircraft maintenance accidents [1][2][3][4], empirical and systematic investigations on important continuing airworthiness matters [5][6][7] and research studies on methodologies for risk and safety assessment in continuing and initial airworthiness [8][9][10]. Overall, this collection of papers is a valuable addition to the published literature, and I am confident that the readers of Aerospace will find that useful.…”