Risk-Utility calculus
Definition
The balancing of expected harm (probability of injury multiplied by severity) against the burden of prevention (cost of the SAD plus any loss of utility). A design is defective when risk outweighs utility and a feasible SAD exists.
Related terms
- Commercial feasibility
- Whether the cost of the safer design, spread across expected production volumes, would have made the product unaffordable or unmarketable.
- Custom versus mandatory standard
- Voluntary industry standards represent custom in the industry; regulatory standards (mandatory by law) set the legal floor. A product can violate custom...
- Design standard
- A document produced by a recognised body (ISO, ASTM, UL, EN, national authority) specifying minimum technical requirements for a product category. Meeting...
- Safer alternative design (SAD)
- A specific, concrete modification to a product that would have reduced the hazard in question while preserving the product's essential utility, and...
- Technical feasibility
- The capacity to implement a design change with materials, processes, and knowledge available at the date the product was manufactured and sold.
Explained in
- Design Defect Analysis and Safer Alternative DesignsThe balancing of expected harm (probability of injury multiplied by severity) against the burden of prevention (cost of the SAD plus any loss of utility). A de...