Who actually uses these on a regular basis? Reason I ask is that im in the middle of the NEBOSH diploma unit A and struggling to get to grips with the above, id appreciate if anyone with some in depth knowledge could spare some time and put me on the right track

HAZOPS would be used in the nuclear or other high risk industries on a large scale where there is a complex plant or operation where many small knock on effects from interuptions or changes in process flow could have a major implication further down stream. You would look at one specific scenario, like a failure of a pipe, vessel, valve, loss of power, incident, fire and then systematically look at the impacts that this would have on the process / plant. So for example - "pressure releif valve fails to open during heating of a water system to release excess steam generated", you would go through the standard (or industry specific) prompts for the HAZOP and list the effects, it may be up to the team then and there or process engineers/designers etc to later put in place preventative measures to mitigate these effects, e.g. Scenario: Heater burners dont autmatically shut off Effect: Increase in pressure down stream in pipe work 1a Controls: Pipe work designed to operate at 500bar, secondary pressure relief valves sitauted at junction 2b lifts at 400bar, electronic feedback to flow valve to reduce flow and to heater to reduce temperature Effect: Increase in pressure in Tank 3c Controls: etc... Effect: Heaters taken offline for repair Controls: Secondary heaters used etc. The idea is to highlight potential failings in a possible scenario or condition and ensure there are suitable controls in place to eliminate that risk. This is a pretty basic overview but there are many useful websites out there which specialise in this, I beileve the IChemE also run courses on HAZOP in particular so you may be able to find helpful information on their website. Des

Same here, tried to use FTA once in an accident investigation and soon gave up and went back to root cause analysis (just use the 5 WHYs). Unless you are in a high risk industry where use of HAZOP or FMEA is routine just learn enough to pass the exam then forget it. In my experience there is a lot of the unit A syllabus that you need to know to pass the exam then won't use again, including much of the case law.

Hazops( a hazard identification technique, not a risk assessment) are used all the time for new plant and managing change in many chemical and allied industries not just high risk. FTA and ETA are not used so often but the principles are worth learning to further your understanding.

Leebo, I carry out these types of study on a weekly basis. PM me and I will try to help out

im currently studying unit A NEBOSH diploma and there seems to be a question in all the previous exams with regards to ETA FTA HAZOP FMEA after reading my course notes and other sources of info im struggling to grasp both the ETA and FTA, I understand that the average health and safety person rarely if ever uses these concepts but id still like to get my head around them