Engineering a Safer World: Systems Thinking Applied to Safety
by Nancy G. Leveson
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Description
Engineering has experienced a technological revolution, but the basic engineeringtechniques applied in safety and reliability engineering, created in a simpler, analog world, havechanged very little over the years. In this groundbreaking book, Nancy Leveson proposes a newapproach to safety--more suited to today's complex, sociotechnical, software-intensive world--basedon modern systems thinking and systems theory. Revisiting and updating ideas pioneered by 1950saerospace engineers in their show more System Safety concept, and testing her new model extensively onreal-world examples, Leveson has created a new approach to safety that is more effective, lessexpensive, and easier to use than current techniques. Arguing that traditional models of causalityare inadequate, Leveson presents a new, extended model of causation (Systems-Theoretic AccidentModel and Processes, or STAMP), then then shows how the new model can be used to create techniquesfor system safety engineering, including accident analysis, hazard analysis, system design, safetyin operations, and management of safety-critical systems. She applies the new techniques toreal-world events including the friendly-fire loss of a U.S. Blackhawk helicopter in the first GulfWar; the Vioxx recall; the U.S. Navy SUBSAFE program; and the bacterial contamination of a publicwater supply in a Canadian town. Leveson's approach is relevant even beyond safety engineering, offering techniques for "reengineering" any large sociotechnical system to improve safetyand manage risk. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
This is a really great book about safety in complex systems. Having read books like The Challenger Launch Decision and Normal Accidents, my interest in system safety has been piqued and I've been reading any other books on the topic that I can find. This one overviews a method of system safety that looks beyond the root cause analysis used by so many organizations to determine "what went wrong" in an accident or incident.
There is a lot to learn in this book, even for those (such as myself) who are not systems engineers. The applications in so many diverse fields makes this a valuable resource for many.
There is a lot to learn in this book, even for those (such as myself) who are not systems engineers. The applications in so many diverse fields makes this a valuable resource for many.
Good thesis, that engineering mistakes are more often systems mistakes. If you defund all of the safety mechanisms, of course things are going to be disastrous when they do go wrong. I've seen this time and time again during my engineering career, where the business people and project managers care only about safety in reactionary circumstances.
I abandoned this book about a quarter of the way through though, because my god is it long.
I abandoned this book about a quarter of the way through though, because my god is it long.
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Nancy G. Leveson is Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems at MIT. An acknowledged leader in the field of safety engineering, she has worked to improve safety in nearly every industry over the past, thirty years.
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- Canonical title
- Engineering a Safer World: Systems Thinking Applied to Safety
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- Members
- 59
- Popularity
- 522,636
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.83)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 6
- ASINs
- 1
