Susceptibility, Occurrence, Response Capability

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About this lesson

Susceptibility, occurrence, and response capability describe the parameters of risk analysis. All three must combine for a risk to become a reality. Completely controlling anyone of those removes the risk as a factor in your business.

Quick reference

Susceptibility, Occurrence, Response Capability

There are three necessary conditions for a theoretical risk to become an actual threat. The product or process must be susceptible to that type of risk; something must occur to initiate that type of risk, and the product or process does not have the capability to respond to that risk once the occurrence has been initiated.

When to use

The understanding of these three principles should be applied to a product or process in the early design stages.  An in-depth assessment of these three conditions should be done with respect to risk profiles prior to the finalization of product or process design.

Instructions

Whenever a product or process is being designed, the designers must consider risks and threats to ideal performance.  When considering the potential risk scenarios, there are three conditions that must be met for a theoretical risk to turn into an actual realized problem.  If the designers of the product or process can eliminate or control one of those three conditions, the potential risk will not impact performance.  Therefore, each potential or theoretical risk scenario should be analysed and a determination made as to the best method to attempt to control these three conditions.  These three conditions are:

Susceptibility

This condition is inherent in the design and use of the product or process.  It is based upon the functions that are being performed and how they are being performed.  Some risks can be eliminated by creating a design that is not susceptible to that risk.  For instance, if the product or process does not have electronics and software, there is no risk of a software bug.  Eliminating the susceptibility risk is not always possible because the risk is an inherent attribute of the function of the product or process.  For instance, since automobiles are intended to transport people along city streets, there is always a risk that the automobile will hit something that is on the street.

Occurrence

This is the condition that starts the sequence of events associated with the risk condition.  If the sequence is never started, the risk remains theoretical, not actual.  This occurrence could be due to an action of a user or operator.  The person drops a product that has fragile parts and it becomes damaged.  This occurrence could be due to the misuse or misapplication of a product or process.  A user enters a wrong code on a keypad.  And sometimes the occurrence is outside the control of the product, process, or user.  A lightning strike creates an electrical surge that damages a circuit and causes a product to malfunction.

Response Capability

The third condition is an inability to respond to a risk event, either because it is not recognized as such or the there is not enough time or capacity to react.  This is the reason that many products and processes have warning lights or safety guards.  These provide a user with an indication of risk conditions and the user can then take appropriate action.  In some cases, the design is created with enough robust or “heavy duty” performance margin that even though a risk condition is occurring, the product or process is able to continue to perform. 

Hints & tips

  • You only need to control one of the three conditions.  If the there is no susceptibility, the risk can’t happen.  If there is no occurrence, the risk won’t happen.  If there is response capability, the risk is contained and controlled when it does happen.
  • These conditions are much easier to impact if they are addressed at the design concept stage rather than waiting until the design is complete and then trying to add risk reduction attributes.
  • Make sure you consider both normal use and abnormal use when considering risk scenarios.
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  • 00:04 Hi, I'm Ray Sheen.
  • 00:06 There are three conditions that must be met for
  • 00:08 a theoretical risk to become an actual risk.
  • 00:11 These conditions are susceptibility, occurrence, and an inability to respond.
  • 00:18 So an effective risk-based analysis needs to address these three conditions.
  • 00:23 The world is full of potential or theoretical problems.
  • 00:26 We want to know which of those will turn into a full blown actual risk event.
  • 00:30 Let's look at these three conditions again.
  • 00:33 The first is susceptibility.
  • 00:35 The product or process must be susceptible to that type of risk.
  • 00:39 If the product does not have any software, it's not susceptible to software bugs.
  • 00:45 The second is occurrence, the risk conditions, or
  • 00:48 at least the conditions that would enable the type of risk must occur.
  • 00:53 If the product is damaged by temperature extremes,
  • 00:56 does the temperature ever fall below the freezing point?
  • 01:00 And third is whether there are some types of control mechanisms or
  • 01:03 design margin, such that when the risk occurs the product or process responds and
  • 01:07 is able to continue to perform as expected.
  • 01:11 When the power is lost to the building,
  • 01:13 the battery backup in the computer keeps it running.
  • 01:16 Let's consider each of these in more detail.
  • 01:19 First is susceptibility to risk.
  • 01:22 Susceptibility is inherent in what the product or process does, or
  • 01:25 how it is used.
  • 01:27 Automobiles move people along city streets, so
  • 01:30 there is the inherent risk of hitting something else that is on the street.
  • 01:34 If we think about a product or
  • 01:35 service, the susceptibility is based upon the design of the product or service.
  • 01:40 The more complex the design, the more opportunities there are for
  • 01:43 making a wrong decision or having substandard performance.
  • 01:46 Also, the basic design may be fragile or inadequate for the intended use.
  • 01:51 When that is the case, the product is susceptible to damage.
  • 01:55 There's a similar issue for processes.
  • 01:57 Some processes, based upon their design, are more susceptible to risks and
  • 02:01 problems.
  • 02:02 If there are many decisions, there are many chances to do something incorrectly.
  • 02:06 If the process includes special processes requiring unique skills or
  • 02:10 tools, the opportunity for errors is even greater.
  • 02:14 The bottom line for susceptibility is the design of the product or process.
  • 02:18 You can't remove all risks because some are associated with the intended use.
  • 02:23 However, through judicious design decisions,
  • 02:26 some risks can be eliminated and others reduced.
  • 02:30 Okay, now lets look at occurrence,
  • 02:32 what I'll refer to as the risk-enabling conditions.
  • 02:36 Let's start by acknowledging that if the defect can occur, it eventually will.
  • 02:40 Despite the incredibly long odds, somebody wins the lottery.
  • 02:45 Eventually the sun, moon, and stars will align in just the right way.
  • 02:49 And when those conditions occur, the risk event is initiated.
  • 02:53 The ball starts rolling, and
  • 02:54 unlike a snowball, the longer it goes, the bigger it gets.
  • 02:59 Now those enabling conditions are related to the product and
  • 03:01 process in several different ways.
  • 03:04 The conditions might be caused by the user's interaction with the product or
  • 03:07 process.
  • 03:08 They enter a wrong setting or install something incorrectly.
  • 03:12 The conditions might come about through the normal use or
  • 03:14 operation of the product or process.
  • 03:17 The light bulbs and the emergency warning light burns out.
  • 03:20 The tire on the car goes flat when it hits an object in the road.
  • 03:25 And sometimes, the conditions are caused by something
  • 03:27 outside the control of the product or process.
  • 03:30 There's a lightening strike that sends a bolting surge through the equipment.
  • 03:34 The risk-enabling conditions can be minimized by designing the product or
  • 03:38 process to make it immune to some conditions.
  • 03:41 Or by using process controls to manage the surrounding environment and
  • 03:45 the process performance.
  • 03:47 Finally, let's look at the attribute of risk response capability.
  • 03:51 By risk response capability, I mean the product or
  • 03:54 process design elements that recognize the risk-enabling conditions and
  • 03:58 risk-susceptibility and take appropriate action to prevent or correct for the risk.
  • 04:04 Many times, the risk response capability is designed into a product
  • 04:08 through warnings or safeguards, things like anti-locking brakes on a car or
  • 04:13 childproof caps on a bottle of pills.
  • 04:16 Sometimes, the risk response capability is extra design margin.
  • 04:20 A heavy-duty aspect of the product or process that is can absorb the risk or
  • 04:25 automatically correct for it and allow the product or process to keep right on going.
  • 04:29 The autocorrect on your word processing program that takes care of spelling errors
  • 04:34 or exercise clothes with reinforced seams that provide extra strength at the point
  • 04:39 of highest stress.
  • 04:41 Where the risk may trigger a warning signal that gives the user time to take
  • 04:45 appropriate action.
  • 04:46 Such as the tire pressure is low signal on your car giving you time to get
  • 04:51 the tire serviced.
  • 04:53 Overall, the efficacy or effectiveness of response capability
  • 04:57 is based upon what was designed into the product or process and
  • 05:00 how well it is being managed and maintained.
  • 05:05 These characteristics of susceptibility, occurrence, and
  • 05:08 response capability are critical for managing technical risk.
  • 05:13 And we will see in the next few lessons that the FMEA gives us a framework for
  • 05:17 assessing these.

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