Operation Risk Awareness and Preparedness Rating (ORAPR)
Jan 25th, 2011
Operation Risk Awareness and Preparedness Rating (ORAPR) is a simple form following a multiple choice questionnaire format, to be filled by a key person or a committee well informed about the management practices and controls driving the company, division, operation, project to be evaluated.
The benefits for the evaluated entity are considerable: the Operation Risk Awareness and Preparedness Rating (ORAPR) constitutes a very fast, easy, repeatable and inexpensive approach revealing global strengths and weaknesses of the management and leadership of the evaluated entity and delivering a metric of the Operation/ Corporation/ Project Survivability Readiness and Awareness in case of hardship, extreme events, crises and mishaps.
Contrary to other approaches, little or no guidance is needed to reply to the questions.
The form contains 14 sections covering a wide spectrum of the corporate, project, operation managerial and operational activities, with a total of approximately 150 questions. The approximate time to fill the form can be as short as 1 hour provided the person or committee in charge of the rating are well informed about the operation/project management and controls.
Once the form is filled up, it can be returned to Oboni Riskope Associates Inc. (ORA) that will use the replies to deliver a number of vital data set that constitute a metric of the Operation/ Corporation/ Project Survivability Readiness and Awareness. ORA does not need to know the location, the name and other confidential data to perform the rating: confidentiality is thus totally ensured.
The simplest form of result is a radar-screen graph featuring fourteen radii (one per covered management/ operational area considered in the analysis) , see figures below) on which the relative rating is displayed. By joining the end of each radius a polygon is drafted.
The smaller the polygon, the poorest are awareness and preparedness.
If the polygon is very irregular (star-shaped) then the entity has poorly balanced preparedness and awareness (spends too much efforts in some directions, not enough in others).
When preparedness and awareness increase, the surface should increase and funds should be invested in such a way that the polygon becomes as regular as possible.
Other metrics can be provided as we will show in future posts.
NB: Operation Risk Awareness and Preparedness Rating (ORAPR) is not intended to replace or substitute a formal Risk Assessment, Risk or Crisis Management approach, or an Enterprise Risk Management initiative. It is instead an easy to perform, fast and inexpensive way to measure how aware, ready and prepared you/your organization/projects are to the inevitable volatility of our world, facing third party crises, climate changes, economic turmoil, recessions, obsolescence, fierce competition etc.
As we will demonstrate in the case study presented in the next section, Operation Risk Awareness and Preparedness Rating (ORAPR) will actually help you measure the relative effectiveness of your Risk and Crisis Management efforts, and thus help you ensure that the funds devoted to these initiatives are allotted in a reasonable and sustainable manner.
Case study
The subject of this case study is a medium size real-life client’s operation. This particular client is a mine operator but the Operation Risk Awareness and Preparedness Rating (ORAPR) can be used for any industry or operation.
The operations was rated at three different stages:
1) Before our first Risk Assessment (Initial Status Quo Rating)
2) After our first partial Risk Assessment which dealt with the environmental and waste management aspects,
3) After further completion of a wide spread Risk Assessment covering other aspects of the operation.
Stage 1:Before our first Risk Assessment (Initial Status Quo Rating)
As it can be seen in the figure the resulting polygon is relatively small in relation to the possible full radar-screen, it is rather irregular (star-shaped). This means that the entity is quite unprepared and unaware of its risks and crises, thus poor controls or no controls are in place, and furthermore the various management and operational areas receive unbalanced attention.
This is the image of a rather poorly managed entity (in particular with respect to risks and crises) which is, however, compliant to Health and Safety Regulations and takes good care of its equipment and production systems.
Status Quo before Risk Assessment
Stage 2: After our first partial Risk Assessment which dealt with the environmental and waste management aspects
As a result of Stage 1 Operation Risk Awareness and Preparedness Rating (ORAPR), Management allotted some resources to perform a Risk Assessment which dealt with the environmental and waste management aspects. As it can be seen the results of this initiative “pushed the envelope” increasing some radii and “rounding-up” the contour.
The partial nature of the initiative lead to modest, but significant local enhancements, and a modest overall increase of the surface.
After a first partial Riask Assessment
Stage 3: After further completion of a wide spread Risk Assessment covering other aspects of the operation
Stage 3 allowed us to complete the scope of the Risk Assessments by allowing us to study areas that had previously never been examined.
As it can be seen in the figure below, then trends initiated in Stage 2 were confirmed and the polygon became “rounder” and larger.
Only the areas of Event Management, Emergency and Preparedness, Auditing and Inspection remained “untouched” and appear quite visible as a “deformation” of the regular polygon.
After wide spectrum Risk Assessments
The evolution in one picture
The figure below shows the three stages superimposed. As it can be seen the gains yielded by the performed initiatives are quite visible, easy to understand and the radar-screen image can be used as a basis for budget discussions etc.
Of course the Operation Risk Awareness and Preparedness Rating (ORAPR) can also be used to build “what if” scenarios to foster healthy discussions and increase the pertinence of Risk and Crisis Management investments.
The three stages on the same radar-screen show quite eloquently the evolution
Tagged with: alternative, Analysis, assessment, catastrophe, Comparative, crises, crisis, decision, development, economic, Financial, holistic, management, mining, operational, projects, sustainability, tolerability, transportation
Category: Consequences, Hazard, Mitigations, Probabilities, Risk analysis, Risk management, Tolerance/Acceptability, Uncategorized
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