Product Safety & Risk Assessments

There is more to a safe product than exceeding safety requirements.  Assessing whether a product is safe, the product needs to:

·         Exceed all industry safety standards
·         Exceed all “best engineer practices”
·         Be designed for the intended environment and application
·         Be designed to protect users against foreseeable misapplications
·         Be provided with effective labeling and instructions

Assessing compliance to a specific industry standard is relatively straight-forward.  For an industrial control panel that is intended to be applied in the US, the following standards are minimum requirements:

·         OSHA 29 CFR 1910 – General Industry
·         UL 508A – Standard for Safety, Industrial Control Panels
·         NFPA 70 – National Electric Code
·         NFPA 79 – Industrial Machines

Depending on the technology deployed in the industrial control cabinet and its intended application, additional standards may be relevant.  This includes those related to electromagnetic compatibility, life safety, emergency power systems, hazardous conditions, etc.

When attempting to evaluate the equipment to intended environments and applications and to protect users from foreseeable misapplications, one needs to look beyond industry standards.  One method to analyze these scenarios is to perform a risk assessment.

A risk assessment is a tool used to identify hazard conditions associated with the design, manufacture, installation, operation or de-commissioning of the product.  The major components of risk assessment are:

·         Identify the hazards
·         Assess the hazards
·         Develop controls & make decisions
·         Implement controls
·         Supervise and evaluate

When a thorough risk assessment is used in conjunction with meeting industry standards, “best engineering practices”, and proper labeling and instructions, the product will be better designed than those that do not undergo a risk assessment, and be less likely to cause injury from normal or abnormal operation.

In addition to the increased safety attributes from conducting a risk assessment, there are also financial incentives for an organization.  This includes those associated with increased profitability as fewer resources are required to be accrued to account for the potential of product damages, recalls, or related injuries.