Bowties in which every barrier shows why it is green, amber or red.
You record a barrier once in the register and place it in as many bowties as needed. Bowtie calculates its colour from tests, incidents, open findings and indicators, and states the reason. Built and hosted in the EU.
From now to next
Less drawing, more certainty about your barriers
A bowtie on a poster is worth a good conversation. But whether the barriers still work today is not on that poster, and the same barrier appears in three bowties in three different colours.
The same barrier, drawn three times
An emergency stop or a four-eyes check appears in several bowties. Each drawing has its own copy, with its own owner and its own colour.
One register, one barrier
Every barrier exists once in your organisation's register. You place it in every bowtie where it belongs, and the same status applies everywhere.
The colour is an opinion
Green or red is what the author once thought. A failed incident or an expired test changes nothing in the drawing.
The colour is calculated
Works, weakened, failed or unproven follows from the latest test, incidents, open findings, indicators and the measure in Risk Heat Map. Every screen shows why this colour.
Degradation and indicators are missing
What undermines a barrier, and how you would notice early, sits at best in a separate document.
Degradation factors and indicators per barrier
For each barrier you record what weakens it and which control addresses that, plus leading and lagging indicators with a threshold. Outside the threshold, the barrier turns amber.
Large bowties are unreadable
From a dozen barriers the drawing no longer fits on a screen, let alone on a projector in the safety meeting.
Compact, fit to screen and full screen
Working barriers collapse into a counter so the problems remain visible. Zoom, a minimap and a presentation mode in full screen keep large bowties readable.
This is what it looks like
A selection from Bowtie
Click a thumbnail for that screen, or the image itself for the full-size view.
Frequently asked questions
What you want to know about Bowtie beforehand
What is Bowtie?
Bowtie is a web application by Audirium for bowtie analysis with a barrier register per organisation. For each hazard you draw the causes, the preventive barriers, the top event, the recovery barriers and the consequences. A barrier exists once in the register and appears in as many bowties as needed. Its colour is calculated from tests, incidents, findings and indicators.
Who is Bowtie for?
Bowtie is built for safety professionals and HSE departments that manage barriers across several scenarios, and for risk managers who want to link a bowtie to their risk register. The register, the degradation factors and the indicators per barrier come from the needs of safety practice. Bowtie also works without the other Audirium apps.
What does Bowtie do in practice?
Bowtie draws bowties with barriers by type (technical, organisational, behavioural) and criticality, manages a barrier register with reuse across bowties, records degradation factors and leading and lagging indicators per barrier, and calculates the health of every barrier with the reason attached. A cockpit shows the share of critical barriers that demonstrably work.
How does Bowtie differ from a drawing tool?
In a drawing tool a barrier is a shape with a colour someone picked. In Bowtie it is a register record with an owner, tests, incidents and indicators, and the colour follows from that data. The same barrier therefore has the same status in every bowtie, and every colour comes with its reason. An empty or incomplete diagram never gets green.
How does AI work in Bowtie, and who decides?
AI fill-in proposes, per bowtie, the hazard, causes, consequences, barriers with type and degradation factors, using the background your organisation provides. The model only delivers proposals. You tick what to adopt and adjust it; only then is it saved, through the same checks as manual entry. A name that already exists in the register becomes a reference, not a copy.
How are data and hosting handled in Bowtie?
Bowtie runs on Audirium servers in the EU (Hetzner). Each organisation has its own separate database holding its bowties and barrier register. Data from Risk Heat Map, Incident, Action Tracking, Audit and Flowmap arrives through a secured service route, never by reading each other's database directly. If another app is unreachable, Bowtie continues with its own data and says so.
What Bowtie offers
Bowtie analysis with a barrier register at its heart
Bowtie was built on feedback from safety practice: barrier type visible, large numbers of barriers, degradation, and reuse across risks.
AI built in, not bolted on
AI fill-in proposes the hazard, causes, consequences, barriers with type and degradation factors, using your own background as context. You tick what to adopt; nothing is saved until you choose.
Barrier register
All barriers of the organisation in one table, with type, criticality, owner, health and the most serious reason. Search, filter, merge and see which bowties a barrier appears in.
Type and criticality visible
Technical, organisational or behavioural as a letter and shape in the drawing, critical barriers marked with a star. Colour by health, effectiveness or type, as you prefer.
Health with evidence
A passed test or an incident in which the barrier held is evidence that it works. A test older than a year, an open finding or a failed incident counts against it, until the corrective action is complete.
Leading and lagging indicators
Per barrier, series by month, quarter or year with a threshold and a direction. Outside the threshold the barrier becomes weakened, and the cockpit counts it.
Cockpit on critical barriers
A gauge on the share of critical barriers that demonstrably work, the gaps ranked by severity and per owner what carries their name. Every number drills down to the register or the bowtie.
Connected to risk, incident and action
Create a bowtie from a risk in Risk Heat Map, see which barriers failed or held in an incident, and which findings and actions from Action Tracking and Audit are open on a barrier.
Flowmap controls as barriers
Place a control from a Flowmap process diagram as a barrier in the bowtie. Name, type and owner remain managed in Flowmap, so no second truth arises.
Data sovereignty
A separate database per organisation, hosted in the EU. Links with other apps run through a secured service route, never through each other's database. Bowtie also works without Risk Heat Map.
How it works
From hazard to demonstrably working barriers in six steps
Start a bowtie
Begin empty, pick a risk from Risk Heat Map, or let AI propose the hazard, causes and consequences.
Place the barriers
Type a name and reuse what is already in the register, pick a control from Flowmap, or create a new barrier with type and owner.
Record degradation and indicators
Note per barrier what weakens it, which control addresses that, and which indicator you track against which threshold.
Enter tests and incidents
Record test results. Incidents arrive automatically from the Incident app, with failed, weakened or held per barrier.
Read the colour and the reason
Every barrier shows works, weakened, failed or unproven, with the reason. The barrier panel gathers what Incident, Audit and Action Tracking recorded.
Steer from the cockpit
Track the share of critical barriers that demonstrably work, assign the gaps to owners and present the bowtie in full screen.
Know which barriers work today, and be able to show it?
Request a demo or get in touch for more information about Bowtie for your organisation.