Coal industry takes innovative approach to risk management

An interactive, online risk management system developed by mining industry professionals for the mining industry is gaining traction across coalmines in Australia and overseas.

Known as Riskgate, the easy-to-use tool provides information about 17 high-consequence risk areas across open-cut and underground coal mines, such as strata control, ground control, fires, collisions and isolation. It is designed to help mining personnel understand and select controls relevant to specific major events and connects them to information about event-specific controls.

Riskgate does not provide a set of systems, procedures or guidelines, but rather it provides prompts that may help personnel find gaps in their own controls based on systematic consideration of events, including their causes and consequences. The tool can be used to conduct or develop risk assessments, audits, incident investigations and management systems.

In 2010, the Australian Coal Association Research Program (ACARP) and Professor Jim Joy at the Minerals Industry Safety and Health Centre (MISHC) at The University of Queensland scoped out the parameters for the system. They established a multimillion-dollar, multiyear project - ACARP’s largest single investment in occupational health and safety research.

Mining industry experts from Australia’s major coal mining companies and recognised academics from leading universities pooled their risk management knowledge through a series of structured action research workshops led by MISHC. A significant investment of time and resources, the Riskgate body of knowledge has been distilled from 400+ days of industry expert time and 100+ days of workshops.

Riskgate Project Manager and MISHC Associate Professor Philipp Kirsch said the system underwent repeated virtual product testing and improvement in 2011 before being built and commissioned in 2012.

“Construction of the basic system architecture is now complete with current software development focused on refinements and increased functionality. Usability tests were completed in the last few pre-launch workshops in 2012, and issues with the system were then addressed by the software team,” he said.

“Overall, industry experts (topic panel members) are pleased with the Riskgate system. Their feedback indicates that the most common application of Riskgate is for assistance with risk assessments, but it is also being used for training and to assist in the development of management systems, audits and incident investigations.”

Riskgate uses bow-tie analysis (BTA) to identify event-specific controls and consider the range of causes and consequences for selected priority events. BTA is used by many mine sites around the world. When a potential incident has been identified, such as an underground fire or a highwall collapse, BTA is used to identify controls that could prevent the incident, as well as controls that could reduce the consequences of the event. The name is derived from the article of clothing worn around the neck. In BTA, the knot or centre of the bow-tie describes a single initiating event (Figure 1). A list of possible causes is on the left side of the bow-tie, each with its own specific preventive controls. Stemming from the initiating event on the right side of the bow-tie is a list of possible consequences, each with its own specific mitigating controls. The relationship between causes and consequences is managed through the central knot, or initiating event. So the thinking isn’t ‘cause and effect’ or ‘cause and consequence’, it’s ‘cause and event’ then ‘event and consequence’.

Figure 1

Users can select preventive controls or mitigating controls for an initiating event. Under the topic ‘Strata control’, for example, the user can select the initiating event ‘Loss of strata control at the longwall face’ and drill down to identify the particular causes and their preventive controls. Alternatively, the user can identify the mitigating control ‘Separate people from potential fall zones on the longwall face’, for example, for the consequence ‘Personnel injury or fatality on the longwall face’. The tool contains more than 16,000 individual controls.

The Australian coal industry is currently making a step change in risk management by focusing on control effectiveness using bow-tie analysis. Not only has this change helped personnel better understand the effectiveness of specific controls, but it has driven the recognition that each mine site requires unique treatment as it prioritises the management of operational risk.

Associate Professor Kirsch said the system had been designed to work with, not replace, companies’ existing risk management systems.

“Any system that uses controls can be used in conjunction with Riskgate,” he said.

“To make this process as seamless as possible, we have worked with companies to develop software interfaces between their existing risk management systems and Riskgate.

“Interfaces are available for MS Excel and IHS’s (formerly Dyadem) Stature system. The team at MISHC is happy to work with companies to develop further interface software to ensure mining personnel can maximise the potential of Riskgate.”

Associate Professor Kirsch said while the level of Riskgate take-up varied across companies, a number of major players were using it widely across their operations.

“One company, for example, is using Riskgate to help manage geotechnical risk at its operations through the ground control and strata control topics,” he said.

“Anglo American has used Riskgate to revise its global isolation standard and to develop the practical, non-technological elements of its collision avoidance system.”

Centennial Coal Chief Risk Officer John Hempenstall is on ACARP’s Riskgate management committee and is a Riskgate champion. He has been instrumental in the integration of Riskgate into Centennial’s risk management system.

“We use IHS’s Stature risk assessment software to help manage our on-site risks. Our version of Stature uses the 5 by 5 WRAC matrix - which is the most common risk assessment template in the Australian mining industry, and also incorporates FMEA and bow-tie analysis,” he said.

“We commissioned IT specialists to develop an export/import feature to provide a quick and easy interface from Riskgate to Stature. This feature is now available on Riskgate for other Stature customers to use.

“This interface means we’re now able to quickly and efficiently incorporate the Riskgate body of knowledge into our risk assessments, making the time-consuming process of copying and pasting redundant.

“Not only that, Riskgate’s well-defined structure gives us a logical starting point for discussion around each risk assessment, and we can quickly determine what needs to be included and what should be excluded. It’s a much more efficient process.”

Centennial Coal’s Springvale compliance manager Col Macdonald said Riskgate was easy to use and provided verification that site personnel had considered all the appropriate causes, consequences and controls of an initiating event.

“On-site, it’s quite easy to get into your own little world. We always talk about current industry practice but where can you get that information? Now we can get it from Riskgate, which has been developed by industry experts,” he said.

This coal industry body of knowledge has much broader application. Many hazards in the industry, such as collision, hazardous energy, fires, explosions and slips, trips and falls are common in other industries.

Associate Professor Kirsch said coal mining was recognised globally as a hazardous activity and, as a result, operated under high levels of regulatory and public scrutiny.

“Other high-risk industries, often associated with the coal supply or energy chains - including power generation and transmission, construction, rail transport, road transport and shipping - all need to manage workforces operating in similar high-risk environments,” he said.

“From a broad industry perspective, the Riskgate platform provides an environment for knowledge capture and knowledge exchange regarding current practice, and facilitates a cumulative corporate memory available to all practitioners.

“I encourage practitioners from other high-risk industries to engage with the Riskgate process to help improve their risk management outcomes.”

With 17 Riskgate topics currently available, MISHC intends to develop a fitness for work topic in 2014, which will address alcohol, drugs, fatigue, and psychological and physical wellbeing.

The MISHC team will be looking for industry experts to participate in the associated action research workshops.