Loss Prevention and Control
Content
Loss prevention protects assets - people, property, product, process, and reputation - while loss control limits consequences when prevention fails.
Layers of protection. Prevention (inherently safer design, substitution, containment), detection (gas, flame, level, pressure), control (interlocks, emergency shutdown, relief systems), mitigation (dikes, fire protection, blast walls), and emergency response. A layer qualifies as an independent protection layer only if it is specific, independent, dependable, and auditable. Two instruments sharing one sensor are one layer.
Property and security. Know sprinkler design basics, impounded drainage, spacing and exposure protection, high-hazard storage, and business interruption exposure. Security uses defense in depth: perimeter, access control, detection, response, plus CPTED principles such as natural surveillance and territorial reinforcement.
Machinery and energy. Machine guarding and lockout/tagout are classic loss-control measures; contractor control and hot-work permitting prevent the fires that dominate industrial property losses.
Traps. Giving procedures and training the same credit as engineered safeguards; forgetting common-cause failure; and confusing property damage exposure with business interruption exposure, which often dwarfs it.
Worked example
Two genuinely independent protective layers, each with 90 percent availability, reduce failure probability from 1.0 to 0.1 x 0.1 = 0.01, a 100-fold reduction. If both share a common shutdown valve, the credit collapses to that valve's reliability.