Risk analysis for project management

[Julia]

Hello all

I'm doing a risk analysis on a FSAE project for Australia 2005. Not health and safety, but one that evaluates the liklihood that a problematical event will occur and the impact if it does occur, for weighted product and production risks.

I know this is a long shot, as we are mostly engineers and really bad at this, but i speak from experience when i assert that formal project management tools are necessary!!!

Thanks in advance
Julia Beck
jl.beck@student.qut.edu.au

[Julia]

Hello all

I'm doing a risk analysis on a FSAE project for Australia 2005. Not health and safety, but one that evaluates the liklihood that a problematical event will occur and the impact if it does occur, for weighted product and production risks.

I know this is a long shot, as we are mostly engineers and really bad at this, but i speak from experience when i assert that formal project management tools are necessary!!!

Thanks in advance
Julia Beck
jl.beck@student.qut.edu.au

[Denny Trimble]

Likelihood that a problematic event will occur = 0.999, +.001 / - .000

Sorry I can't be more helpful Julia.

[Frank]

Julia, that exact thesis is in our "thesis library".

submitted in June, 2001 by Andrew Kasianos.

you could try contacting the head of mechanical engineering at UQ, and ask to view it.

He was, in my opinion very correct in his findings.. The most common problems are light burns from hot components (muffler), the fire risk while someone is driving, and cuts from hand tools.

We havn't had anyone majorly "crash" a lathe as yet (touches wood), nor any eye injuries.

Had two people punch the filing cabinet and break their hand http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif (we are seriously considering buying a punching bag, and hanging it in the corner of the workshop)

Frank Evans

[James Waltman]

Could you elaborate a little more on what you are after? Are you going to use this risk assessment for design decisions?

[Charlie]

High risk of sleep, sex, & social deprevation

[ethanL007]

Charlie: check, check, and check. And as an added bonus your girlfriend will absolutely hate you.

I think what Julia was looking for was a risk matrix, with probability on the y-axis, and severity on the x-axis. You then take the list of possible failures and place them in the matrix according to severity and probability. You try to design (or redesign) to bring the failures that are farthest from the origin, closer to the origin. The origin being the least likely to occur (never), with the lowest possible severity (no effect on performance or safety).

[Kirk Feldkamp]

Wow Charlie, you hit the nail right on the head. Frankly I'm impressed by anyone who can keep a girlfriend while doing this stuff. If she's still around after you're done, KEEP HER!!!

-Kirk
UC Berkeley

[BStoney]

Charlie,
All so true...any girlfriend who will put up with all of this must be on the team as well, b/c everyone thinks we are nuts! But you said it best man.
B.J.

[Michael Jones]

High risk of sex?

I guess all those rumors of sordid activity in the rebuilds room are true after all. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

Oh...deprevation. Yep, that's right on the money.

Seriously though, I suppose the most interesting element of this is that fact that failure is not an option - it's not like there's a race next week to make up for it. Even our nominally consumable parts are assumed to be engineered for more duty cycles than we'll ever really see.

I'm sure you can shave many pounds off these cars by playing the odds of completing 22km races and do quite well over many successive attempts - but given that the risk is essentially catastrophic in the event of endurance failure, it's not a game many are willing to play.

[Pachi]

Hello Julia,

I think you need information about operational risk which is the the risk of loss resulting from inadequate or failed internal process, people and systems, or from external events. You must identify "risk flags" or "risk points" that is any point of the process in which any events could happen preventing to reach the proposed objectives. The probability is the frequency with which they happen or they can happen those events, and you need a historical information...

I would like to know how is your progress!!

Best Regards,

Patricia Prieto

[Julia]

Sorry it's taken me so long to reply! Thanks for everyone who posted.

James: No, the risk assessment isn't for design decisions, just trying to identify risks so they can be minimised or eliminated.

Pachi: thanks for your help. Are you doing something similar? I'm working in a small team where i'm the only one who has had involvement in the competition, so we're after some specific risks to evaluate. We don't have much historical info cos '04 is the first year QUT is in the competition. If you've done something similar for your team, your input would be much appreciated! Which uni are you from?

[Pachi]

Hello Julia, I am an operational risk analyst and I don't belong to any team as a member but, yes!! as a surviving girlfriend SAE http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif. I'm industrial engineer and I work identifying and measuring risks. You can use the australian standard as a guide for your project. What kind of risks do you want to evaluate?

[1975BMW2002]

the risk that a car will flip is about .0015 or so. that is based on the fact that it is about one in five years.

however, the risk that a car will flip if it is set up by people with more than 2 hours sleep per night for the last 3 days is pretty much nil. sleep sure does help in chassis setup.

unfortunately sleep is not a common thing at these events.

fortunately the driver that flipped this year was not hurt at all, kind of thought it was cool, and was ready to get back in the car.

the likelihood that a car will hit something is not that high, but apparently it happens. i saw a car this year with some obvious collision damage.

Bill