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Loading... Engineering a Safer World: Systems Thinking Applied to Safety (Engineering Systems)by Nancy G. Leveson
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. 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. no reviews | add a review
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 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. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)620.8Technology Engineering and allied operations Engineering Human FactorsLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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I abandoned this book about a quarter of the way through though, because my god is it long. ( )