A systems approach to risk management through leading safety indicators
Name
Leveson_A systems approach.pdf
Size
1.09 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
6536ff463c37b1192401648f4faf7127
Author(s)
Leveson, Nancy G
Date Issued
October 2014
Journal
Reliability Engineering & System Safety
Citation
Leveson, Nancy. “A Systems Approach to Risk Management through Leading Safety Indicators.” Reliability Engineering & System Safety 136 (April 2015): 17–34. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
The goal of leading indicators for safety is to identify the potential for an accident before it occurs. Past efforts have focused on identifying general leading indicators, such as maintenance backlog, that apply widely in an industry or even across industries. Other recommendations produce more system-specific leading indicators, but start from system hazard analysis and thus are limited by the causes considered by the traditional hazard analysis techniques. Most rely on quantitative metrics, often based on probabilistic risk assessments. This paper describes a new and different approach to identifying system-specific leading indicators and provides guidance in designing a risk management structure to generate, monitor and use the results. The approach is based on the STAMP (System-Theoretic Accident Model and Processes) model of accident causation and tools that have been designed to build on that model. STAMP extends current accident causality to include more complex causes than simply component failures and chains of failure events or deviations from operational expectations. It incorporates basic principles of systems thinking and is based on systems theory rather than traditional reliability theory.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ress.2014.10.008
