Cognitive bias in manufacturing

To understand how cognitive bias can work below the level of your awareness and affect your leadership behavior and your influence on others and the culture, consider the following case from a manufacturing plant. Focus on the plant manager s cognitive bias and resulting behavior. Next, look for the effects of his behavior on his direct reports. Finally, look for the biases active in his team. Notice that none of these people were aware of the role the biases were playing in their behavior  

The manufacturing facility is planning a major expansion in six months during the slow production season for its cyclical product, at which time it will be replacing an aging production line with completely new equipment. The annual safety audit of the plant recommends the installation of emergency shutdown interlocks—safety devices that automatically shut down the system when triggered by an out-of-bounds condition or an 

Three weeks later, afatality occurs, The death of the employee would have been prevented had the leaders shut down the line and made the recommended changes. 

In the following medical case history, identify (at the risk of activating your own hindsight bias) the cognitive biases that may be implicated in the decision errors  

Shortly thereafter, the patient lost consciousness. At this point the emergency room staff reversed their decision not to treat, and they gave her a blood transfusion. Ultimately, the patient recovered from her injuries and was discharged. 

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