Know the Risk: Learning from errors and accidents: safety and risk in today's technology - Softcover

Duffey, Romney Beecher

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0123908205 ISBN 13: 9780123908209

Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2012

Synopsis

We live in a technological world, exposed to many risks and errors and the fear of death. Know the Risk shows us how we can learn from the many errors and tragic accidents which have plagued our developing technological world. This breakthrough volume presents a new concept and theory that shows how errors can and should be analyzed so that learning and experience are accounted for. The authors show that, by using a universal learning curve, errors can be tracked and managed so that they are reduced to the smallest number possible. The authors have devoted a number of years to gathering data, analyzing theories relating to error reduction, design improvement, management of errors and assignment of cause. The analyzed data relates to millions of errors. They find a common thread between all technology-related accidents and link all of these errors (from the headline stories to the everyday accidents). They challenge the reader to take a different look at the stream of threats, risks, dangers, statistics and errors by presenting a new perspective. The book makes use of detailed illustrations and explores many headline accidents which highlight human weaknesses in harnessing and exploiting the technology we have developed; from the Titanic to Chernobyl, Bhopal to Concorde, the Mary Rose to the Paddington rail crash and examine errors over which we have little or no control. By analyzing the vast data society has collected, the authors show how the famous accidents and our everyday risks are related. The authors prove the strength of their observations by comparing their findings to the recorded history of tragedies, disasters, accidents and incidents in chemical, airline, shipping, rail, automobile, nuclear, medical, industrial and manufacturing technologies. They also address the management of Quality and losses in production, the search for zero defects and th

About this title

Review

'One of the most daunting features about major accidents is the complexity of their surface details. For years now, accident theorists have been struggling to find a common underlying pattern that will promote more effective risk management.

Now, I believe, one has been found. In their excellent book, Romney Duffey and John Saull have advanced a thesis that is both extraordinarily elegant in its simplicity and extremely persuasive in the light of the wide range of evidence that they adduce to support it. Learning to reduce errors, they argue, is proportional to the number of errors being made. Clearly, then effective error management depends upon tracking the progress in error reduction down the universal learning curve. This, of course, depends critically on a database that tracks errors and defects in an accurate and timely manner. There is much discussion among safety specialists about how to achieve a learning culture--a culture that profits from its accumulated experience. This book provides very clear directions.

In my view, it should be required reading for all those concerned with the management of risks, both human and technical, in hazardous operations.'

[James Reason, Head of Psychology Department at
Manchester University, UK, 2002]

About the Author

Romney is an internationally recognised scientist, manager, speaker, poet and author, having written over 140 papers and articles. Educated in England, he has over 30 years of international experience in the UK, USA and Canada of technological safety and risk assessment, system design and safety analysis. He is a leading expert in commercial nuclear reactor studies. After a distinguished career working in the US utility industry and government, and leading a not-for-profit Foundation, he is presently The Principal Scientist with AECL (Canada). He is Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and presently is Chair of the Nuclear Engineering Division, an active Member of the America and Canadian Nuclear Societies, and a past Chair of the American Nuclear Society Thermal Hydraulics Division. He has organized and chaired numerous international Conferences. He is active in global environmental and energy studies, and in advanced system design, and is currently leading work on advanced energy concepts.

Edition details

• Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0123908205
• ISBN 13: 9780123908209
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 268