Risk assessment

[Ali_ben]

Dear all

Can some body explain me the process of computing risk assessment in
SAP EHS. As far as my understanding goes, it is computed based on
qualitative method and parameters used are probability and severity.
How much alteration, we can do in risk matrix in backend. Can we
change the logic of computing the risk assessment without changing the
standard SAP System or we need to go for customization.Please guide on this.

[Ali_ben]

I need a list of physical agent

[michaelf_]

Dear Ali,

are you looking on how to create a physical agent in the system or examples for such?

Physical Agents are created in the screen you are showing on your screenshot. Note, there is a one-to-one relation of a Physical Agent to a Hazard (based on the Hazard and Control Register).

Examples for physical agents are any special hazards which can be sampled and may have an occupational exposure limit assigned:

• Noise, is sampled in dB(A) (decibel) and the exposure limit could be 100 dB(A) as STEL,
• High Temperature, sampled in °C (celsius) and the exposure limit could be 35 °C as TWA,
• Radiation, is sampled in Sv (sievert), an exposure limit could be 20 mSv / annum

With kind regards,

Michael

[michaelf_]

Dear Ali,

the Risk Matrix in the EHS Risk Assessment is quite flexible. All of the options I'm going to list can be configured/customized in SPRO:

Environment, Health and Safety -> Health and Safety Management -> Risk Analysis -> Risk Matrix

In general, there can be three dimensions for the Risk Matrix:

• Severity,
• Likelihood, and
• Exposure Frequency.

You can specify whether you want to use the Exposure Frequency at all. If activated, you have three dimensions, if not activated, only the Severity and Likelihood can be assessed.

For each of the above dimensions, a score must be specified. For the severity, the score/values can be specified based on the Risk Assessment Type. As an example, an environmental assessment may use values/terminology related to environmental impact while a safety risk assessment may use values/terminology related to safety.

In the standard implementation, the overall Risk Level is computed on a multiplication of the individual scores.

(Severity) x (Likelihood) x (Exposure Frequency) = (Risk Level)

This behaviour can be changed using the BAdI Risk Level Calculation.

In my consulting experience, the options available in the customizing are sufficient to adapt the Risk Matrix to the requirements.

As an example, we are using the Severity and Likelihood.

• Severity: Major - Permanent Disability or Single Fatality. Score: 4
• Likelihood: Unlikely (Once a Year) - Heard of in the industry: Score: 2

Multiplying the scores, we end up with a Risk Level of 8: Medium (Reversable significant)

With kind regards,

Michael

[Ali_ben]

Thanks Michael.

[Ali_ben]

What the difference between: health; safety; environment and JHA ?

[michaelf_]

Dear Ali,

there are several reasons for the various risk assessment types. Some of these are functional, while others are technical. I'll try to give a walkthrough for all of these reasons.

Subject Matter Area

Assessing environmental or health/safety relevant risks may be performed by different groups of people. Furthermore, different groups of people may be accountable for the risk assessment with the associated risks (and need to approve it). As an example, environmental risks may be the release of hazardous materials into the environment, while health/safety risks may cover the injury of employees. The environmental part could be accounted to some Head of Environmental Protection while the health/safety ones may be accounted to the Head of Safety and Operational Risk.

Hence, the risk assessment type is used to build a subset of all hazards configured in the so-called hazard and control register by the impact each of the hazards may have (in the configuration, the risk assessment types are associated to hazards by the impact types).

How to perform the risk identification

For the Health, Safety, and Environment risk assessment types, the hazard/risk identification is performed either by the Location (where) or by Hazard (what). For JHA, the risk identification is performed on an activity level. Hence, the activity in scope must first be broken into smaller steps. Then, the hazards/risks can be identified for each of the steps.

Authorization to display, create, update, delete

The risk assessment type is also part of the authorization concept. A person who is allowed to create and edit an environmental risk assessment may only be allowed to display safety-relevant risk assessments.

Attention

The risk assessment types you see on your screenshot are the standard ones. It might be the case that you need to change this standard customizing. As an example, you could create a single risk assessment type, or several risk assessment types which focus on one aspect/type of impact. The decision if the standard risk assessment types can be used or custom ones have to be created has to be answered in the blueprint/design for each customer individually.

With kind regards,

Michael