Layers of Protection Analysis (LOPA) – Swift Service Company 

Layers of Protection Analysis (LOPA) – Swift Service Company 

LOPA means Layer of Protection Analysis that serves as a structured approach in the framework of process safety management to estimate and control threats that are related to potentially catastrophic events (Fargie & Pearson, 2022). The purpose of LOPA is to see whether the totality of the safeguards and protection layers that have been put in place are adequate to mitigate risk to a tolerable level. This report provides an overall understanding of threat exposure, threats’ occurrence, the effectiveness of protection layers, and the level of tolerance for those layers.

What Could Happen?

Swift Service Company is exposed to various risks that, if exploited, can cause severe impacts. Such threats can occur at the internal and external levels of an organization. External threats are natural disasters such as floods, industrial accidents, and acts of terrorism. Internally, it is threatened by fire incidents, acts of violence within the workplace, and equipment failure.

Natural Disasters (Outside Threat)

Natural disaster risks are a serious concern for Swift as its data centers and offices can be affected by disasters, including earthquakes, floods, or hurricanes. Earthquakes may lead to the collapse of structural frameworks of buildings and the paralysis of electricity and phone communication networks (Chaudhary & Piracha, 2021). Floods could overflow the facilities, damage equipment, and make the place inaccessible.

Industrial Accidents (Outside Threat)

Swift may face threats if the facilities they operate in are exposed to various industrial accidents from chemical plants, refineries, or manufacturing firms around them. The accidents could be leakages of hazardous material, fire outbreaks, or explosions in these facilities. This may lead to evacuations, pollution of the environment, and subsequent disturbance of the Swift operations.

Terrorist Attacks (Outside Threat)

Terrorist attacks against Swift can occur as the company is one of the key financial services providers that terrorists can exploit to create many victims or destroy a part of the global financial system. Any attack on Swift offices, data centers or employees would result in physical losses, including even deaths and destruction of what matters to human societies.

Fire Hazards (Inside Threat)

Electrical faults, bad wiring, or people’s mistakes could culminate in fire outbreaks at Swift’s facilities. Employee safety is at risk when there is a fire outbreak, and all working equipment and documentation can easily be destroyed by fire in a very short time. Older buildings or buildings with outdated electrical systems are the more vulnerable ones.

Workplace Violence (Inside Threat)

The company might experience an act of violence by employees who have grievances against air or contractors and/or visitors with ill intentions. Ballistic incidents, bombings, or hostage-taking may cause some deaths or reportable injuries and post-event psychosocial morbidities (Koritsas et al., 2010). It is, therefore, important for all employees to observe proper security measures.

Equipment Failures (Inside Threat)

Swift depends on facilities such as computer systems, telecommunications, and backup power. Problems with these systems, such as software glitches or hardware problems, may cause service outages, record loss, and a considerable impact on its finances. When equipment is old, or maintenance is not properly conducted, it will sometimes break down.

Frequency of Potential Threats

Swift Service Company needs to identify the frequency of these threats and develop strategies for tackling them. Some of the threats may not be frequent, such as natural calamities, yet they present a likelihood of immense harm. An example of internal threats are fire hazards, equipment failure, internal fraud, and so on; such threats may not be as frequent as external threats but can be less damaging. Mentioning both outside and inside threats allows the company to enhance its protection of its people, clients, and assets.

Natural Disasters

Catastrophes occur roughly every five to ten years, depending on the zone. These events have happened quite frequently, more so in the last five years, in different world regions, and the United States has been facing an average of 18 climate disasters that cost more than a billion dollars. Floods have been pinpointed as the most common natural disasters, taking up to 42% of the overall rates, while storms, hurricanes, and tornadoes have taken 30%.

Industrial Accidents

The frequency of industrial accidents has shown variation depending on the closeness to industrialized areas. The estimated occurrence for Swift Service Company is close to 1 to 2 cases in a decade. This may depend on factors like the safety standards of neighboring establishments and meeting regulatory requirements. Since there has been an increased improvement in industrialization in many areas, exposure to dangerous substances or gas explosions is possible.

Terrorist Attacks

Terrorist attacks are quite infrequent despite the fact that history shows that the frequency is less than one attack per year in most regions. But the risks associated with such attacks are however must be high bearing in mind that Swift is involved in critical financial services. The threat model is different now, and even though the rate of occurrence may not be very high, the impact may be massive.

 Fire Hazards

It is estimated that commercial facilities experience fire outbreaks once a year. The causes of this frequency include electrical problems, errors, and the involvement of flammable substances. Routine maintenance and safety inspections of the equipment should avoid this risk.

Workplace Violence

Workplace violence cases are believed to occur once or twice annually in large organizations. They can be interpersonal, intra-departmental, with members of the public or other people from outside the organization. This risk has to be managed by providing the required training to Swift Service Company employees and implementing security standards to prevent such an event.

Equipment Failures

It is not uncommon to experience equipment failure that may range from 3-5 times in a year depending on the age of the machinery and or systems and level of maintenance. These failures need to be minimized to avoid loss of operations, as well as the potential of causing safety issues and can be reduced through schedules for the maintenance and upgrading of the systems. Therefore, the frequency of the threats affecting the Swift Service Company includes the probability of external and internal risks, including disasters and equipment.

How Effective are the Layers of Protection

Layer 1: Early Warning Systems

Precautions such as the alarms for natural disasters are approximated to be effective 90% for Swift Service Company. These systems give the company the only lead time that it can prepare and implement crisis management plans and solutions to potentially reduce losses and disruptions.

Layer 2: Emergency Response Plans

Swift’s emergency response plans are estimated to be 70% effective. These plans depict the measures and actions concerning different kinds of crises. Training and exercises are done frequently to get familiar with the plans and also other employees to create awareness of the disaster.

Layer 3: Physical Barriers

Reduced physical facility accessibility through flood walls and security provisions is reported to be about 60% effective against outside threats. Some of these measures aid in the safeguarding of Swift’s facilities and strategic assets. Infrastructure must be put in place to enhance the effectiveness of these barriers and the proper integration of early warning technologies and security systems.

Layer 1: Fire Suppression Systems

Fire suppression systems are taken to be 85% efficient in the protection of the internal fires in Swift’s facilities. These systems, if well installed and managed, can easily identify places with fire outbreaks and can easily put off the fires, thus reducing losses and protecting the employees.

Layer 2: Employee Training Programs

Estimations of the effectiveness of the programs of training the personnel portray them as 75% effective in minimizing internal threats. These programs inform the staff on measures to take, exits, and strategies to follow in case of an eventuality. Education drives and exercises also ensure that employees go through the various early warning signs and response mechanisms, increasing the organization’s awareness of risks and organizational capacity to prevent them.

Layer 3: Security Personnel Presence

Security force attendance is, at best, approximated to range about 65% effective in dealing with internal threats such as workplace violence. A visible security force and access control can help in warding off any potential incidents, and if they are required, the responses cannot be delayed. Since threats are constantly changing, the active surveillance of the changing threats and the modification of the measures taken ensure the continuity of this layer.

How Tolerable are the Mitigation Layers

Outside Layers of Protection Tolerability

This is the generally acceptable tolerability of outside layers on protection at Swift Service Company. This is attributable to the high effectiveness together with the rarity of external threats as opposed to internal threats.

Inside Layers of Protection Tolerability

Concerning the tolerability of the inside layers of protection, it may be stated that it is relatively high at Swift Service Company. This is regarded as the measures in place within the company and the frequent simulations that put the firm in a better position to respond to any internal threats.

References

Chaudhary, M. T., & Piracha, A. (2021). Natural Disasters—Origins, Impacts, Management. Encyclopedia 2021, Vol. 1, Pages 1101-1131, 1(4), 1101–1131. https://doi.org/10.3390/ENCYCLOPEDIA1040084

Fargie, D., & Pearson, K. (2022). Implementing layer of protection analysis in a global organization. Process Safety Progress, 41(1), 66–72. https://doi.org/10.1002/prs.12276

Koritsas, S., Coles, J., & Boyle, M. (2010). Workplace violence towards social workers: The Australian experience. British Journal of Social Work, 40(1), 257–271. https://doi.org/10.1093/BJSW/BCN134

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Assignment 3: Apply the LOPA (Levels of Protection Analysis) Assessment
Attached Files:
File Assignment 3 Layers of Protection _LOPA_ AnalysisTemplate.docx Assignment 3 Layers of Protection _LOPA_ AnalysisTemplate.docx – Alternative Formats (35.533 KB)
Topic: Perform a LOPA (Layers of Protection Analysis) of your local living area or work location. Remember to get permission from security.
Instructions: Please download the Assignment 7 Layers of Protection Analysis (LOPA) template (MS Word), which is already in APA 7 format, using size 12 Times New Roman font, 1-inch margins, TOC, Headings and Reference page. If you insert images or tables in your report make sure you label them appropriately according to APA.