Fundamentals of System Safety

I believe that generalist safety practitioners will improve the quality of their performance by acquiring knowledge of what system safety is all about. I do not say that those generalists must become specialists in system safety, although trends indicate that they will be expected to apply at least the fundamentals of system safety hazard analysis and risk assessment. 

System Safety 2000 by Joe Stephenson. This book begins with a history of and the fundamentals of system safety. Then, the author moves into system safety program planning and management, along with system safety analysis techniques. About half of the book is devoted to those techniques. A safety generalist would find it a good and not too difficult read. 

In this chapter, it was my purpose to (a) recognize the many successes that have been achieved through the application of system safety concepts, (b) establish that fundamental system safety concepts can be applied by generalists in safety practice, (c) outline The System Safety Idea, and (d) encourage generahsts who have not adopted system safety concepts in their practices to commence the inquiry and education to do so. 

The MIL-STD-882D standard practice describes a system safety approach that is useful in the management of Environmental, Health of Safety mishap risks encountered in the life cycle of Department of Defense (DOD) systems, subsystems, equipment, and facilities. To paraphrase the standard, mishap risk must be identified, evaluated, and mitigated to a level acceptable (as defined by the system user or customer) to the appropriate authority, and compliant with federal laws and related rules. Further, residual mishap risk associated with an individual system must be reported to and accepted by the appropriate authority. These basic requirements are fundamental to system safety. 

System safety tools and techniques currently used primarily in the aerospace, weapons, and nuclear industries offer great potential for meeting these challenges. The systematic application of system safety fundamentals early in the life cycle to produce first time safe products and services can provide significant, cost-effective gains in the safety effort in transportation, manufacturing, construction, utilities, facilities, and many other areas. 

This chapter presents the fundamental principles of probabiUty theory and briefly examines the use of statistical analysis in the practice of system safety. The information discussed here should provide the reader with a very basic understanding of these concepts, which, by some accounts, is essential to the overall understanding of the system safety discipline. It should be noted that it is not within the scope of this Basic Guide to System Safety to provide aU there is to know regarding probability theory and statistical analysis. However, a certain level of understanding is essential and will therefore be discussed here. 

The ETBA is one of the fundamental tools of system safety analysis and, when used, can not only document the adequacy of hazard barriers and controls but also identify those energy flow areas within a system that may have been overlooked as potential risk hazards during the concept or design phase of the project. 

This second edition of a Basic Guide to System Safety has been designed to provide the reader with a fundamental understanding of the system safety discipline, the assessment of risk, the hazard analysis process, and some of the common tools and techniques that can be used to determine levels of hazard risk. Numerous examples have been developed throughout the text in an attempt to demonstrate the applicability of system safety engineering and analysis in the practice of the industrial safety and health professional. 

Therefore, Part I of this text focused primarily on the development of system safety, its military connections, the importance of including system safety requirements in contract acquisitions, the criticality of obtaining management commitment in support of the system safety effort, the process of risk analysis and assessment, probability theory and statistical analysis as they relate to system safety, and— perhaps of most value— how the fundamental principles of system safety are closely related to those of occupational safety and health management. 

The fundamental goal of system safety is to develop a system with acceptable mishap risk, for all life-cycle phases, through a formal engineering and management process. This process is applied during the design development phase in order to impact all following phases, the operational phase in particular. 

First, the program needs a system (1) to record what needs to be done to have an outstanding safety program, (2) to do what needs to be done, and (3) to record that the required tasks are done. Second, the participants must have a positive attitude. This includes the willingness to do some of the thankless work that is required for success. Third, the participants must understand and use the fundamentals of chemical process safety in the design, construction, and operation of their plants. Fourth, everyone must learn from the experience of history or be doomed to repeat it. It is especially recommended that employees (1) read and understand... 

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