Risk assessment standards are essential for machinery safety because they identify potential hazards early in design, enable mitigation, and ensure compliance with global regulations like the CE Mark. Conducting assessments during the design phase reduces costs, decreases uncertainty, and demonstrates safe equipment use to end users.
- Risk assessments must be conducted during the design phase when design changes are still feasible and costs are lower
- The CE Mark in the European Union requires risk assessment compliance under the Machinery Directive, recognized globally by ANSI and OSHA
- Early risk assessment yields multiple benefits: reduced uncertainty, better hazard identification, competitive advantage, and lower product liability
- Risk is measured using a risk matrix that evaluates both severity (Catastrophic to Minor) and probability (Very Likely to Remote) of harm
- The process includes seven key steps: identifying hazards, assessing initial risk, reducing risk, assessing residual risk, achieving acceptable risk, validating measures, and documenting results
Great innovations can require risk, but there’s no better area to stay risk-averse than end-user safety.
That’s why all packaging and processing machinery designs require risk assessment, says PMMI Business Intelligence’s 2023 report, “The Impact of Global and Local Standards on OEMs and Suppliers.”
Compliance with risk assessment requirements is imperative because the process identifies potential risks, enables mitigation, and results in a safer machine.
End users often ask about risk assessment in purchase orders for new equipment. This stipulation strengthens relationships between end users and suppliers, serves as a foundation for in-house safety procedures, and ensures suppliers are following the same standards across lines, plants, and countries, as explained by Bruce Main and Fred Hayes in the 2022 virtual presentation “Risk Assessment: Implications for the Leadership Team.”
When to conduct risk assessments
Changing a machine's design to mitigate risk becomes harder as development progresses.PMMI Business Intelligence: 2023 The Impact of Global and Local Standards on OEMs & Suppliers
When completed early in the design, the risk assessment process yields many benefits. Main and Hayes say it can decrease uncertainty about the machine, yield more granular data, capture knowledge about machine performance and operator interaction, and identify more hazards to enable mitigation. It can also demonstrate to end users that risk levels are acceptable, document foreseeability, provide a more productive, safer work environment, give the OEM or supplier company a competitive advantage, and make the design more defendable.
European Union CE Mark requirements
In the E.U., risk assessment, as outlined in the Machinery Directive, is a prerequisite to achieving the CE Mark needed for European equipment sales.
A CE Marking is required for equipment sales in the E.U.PMMI Business Intelligence: 2023 The Impact of Global and Local Standards on OEMs & Suppliers
Risk assessment is also required for robotics via ANSI R15.06/ISO 10218 and to comply with requirements for various end-use applications such as the pharmaceutical industry, Main and Hayes said.
A formal risk assessment provides data that demonstrates safe use of the equipment and confirms due diligence and uniformity in machine design. The risk assessment process reduces loss, time, costs, and product liability and helps meet CE Marking requirements. It also helps machinery suppliers and component suppliers decide where to focus money from the machine design budget, resulting in a better machine design, said Main and Hayes.
Measuring risk
Risk is estimated by considering a hazard's severity and probability and can be
Risk can be measured with a matrix of likeliness and severity of harm.PMMI Business Intelligence: 2023 The Impact of Global and Local Standards on OEMs & Suppliers
Although risk has a strong association with safety, it may also impact productivity, equipment, the environment, and the OEM or supplier’s reputation, Main and Hayes said.
Risk assessment is a multi-step process, which includes identifying hazards, assessing initial risk, reducing risk, assessing residual risk, achieving acceptable risk, validation risk reduction measures, and documenting the process, as outlined in ANSI/PMMI B155.1– Safety Requirements for Packaging and Processing Machinery. Software programs can help standardize and accelerate the process.
SOURCE: PMMI Business Intelligence, "2023 The Impact of Global and Local Standards on OEMs & Suppliers"
Download the FREE report below.
