Definition
The Kinney method, also called the Fine-Kinney method, is a quantitative risk assessment technique that scores a workplace hazard by multiplying three factors: consequence, exposure and probability (R = C x E x P). Developed in 1976 by Kinney and Wiruth, it ranks risks so the most severe are controlled first.
The method builds on a 1971 scoring formula by William T. Fine, which Gilbert Kinney and Arthur Wiruth refined for safety management at the US Naval Weapons Center. It remains a standard tool for occupational health and safety risk assessment, because it turns a subjective sense of danger into a comparable number.
An assessor rates a hazard against three factors, multiplies them, and reads the result as a risk score. Each factor uses a fixed scale, so two people scoring the same hazard reach a similar number.
The product places the hazard in a risk band: below 20 is usually acceptable, 20 to 70 needs attention, 70 to 200 is substantial and needs correction, 200 to 400 is high and demands immediate action, and above 400 means the activity should stop until controlled.
Manufacturing sites carry many concurrent hazards: forklifts, presses, chemicals, moving lines. Teams cannot fix everything at once, so they need a defensible way to rank what to control first. The Kinney score gives that ranking, and it can be recalculated after a control is added to show how much residual risk has dropped.
This supports the risk-based thinking required by ISO 45001:2018, the occupational health and safety management standard, which obliges organisations to assess and prioritise workplace risks. A high score often becomes a non-conformity that triggers root cause analysis and a documented corrective action.
Both tools multiply three factors to prioritise risk, but answer different questions. The Kinney method scores how dangerous a workplace hazard is to people. FMEA, failure mode and effects analysis, scores how a product or process could fail and whether the failure would be detected.
Scores existing workplace hazards for occupational safety. Factors are consequence, exposure and probability. Used in EHS risk assessments.
Scores potential failure modes in a design or process. Factors are severity, occurrence and detection, giving a risk priority number. Used in quality engineering.
One known weakness is that a low exposure score can mask a severe consequence, making a potentially fatal hazard look acceptable. Treat any high-consequence hazard with caution regardless of the final number.
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