The smooth running of a Small or Medium-sized Manufacturing Enterprise (SME) presents a significant challenge
irrespective of the technological and human resources it may have at its disposal. Every organization faces undesirable events and unwanted setbacks in its day to operations. These are referred to as ‘disturbances’ in our research, and all disturbances put an organization at operational, occupational and financial risk. To deal with these disturbances effectively, a SME needs a systematic method of approach and a set of appropriate tools. In order to achieve this, we have developed a theoretical framework for risk management appropriate for SMEs linked to typical disturbances. This paper presents and describes this framework along with its systematic working principles.