Safety system concept

This article shows, through example, how established system safety concepts can be used to develop safety criteria for the design of a chemical surety materiel laboratory. This systematic approach, when applied as described in this article, results in a laboratory dedicated to achieve mission objectives in an environment relatively free of inherent hazards for the least number of dollars. 

Facility System Safety (FSS), which is the application of system safety concepts to the facility acquisition process, has recently gained acceptance throughout the Department of Defense and most recently within the Department of Army with the conception of SAFEARMY 1990. The Army s goal is to fully integrate the total system safety, human factors, and health hazard assessments into continuous comprehensive evaluation of selected systems and facilities. The Chemical Research Development and Engineering Center (CRDEC) has mandated appropriate levels of system safety throughout the lifecycle of facility development for many reasons. These include ... 

In this supporting discussion, the influence of system safety concepts will be evident, as will the concepts on which MORT (management oversight and risk tree) is based. 

System safety professionals have achieved notable successes, and generalists in the practice of safety can learn valuable lessons from them. In MORT Safety Assurance Systems, William G. Johnson made the following comments, with which I agree, about accompKshments that could not have been achieved without applying system safety concepts. 

INFLUENCES ENCOURAGING ADOPTION OF SYSTEM SAFETY CONCEPTS 325... 

Participating in the design process presents opportunities for upstream involvement by safety professionals, using system safety concepts. 

I have been a member of the Institute s advisory committee from its start. In principle, what we have been proposing is that engineers have knowledge of and apply system safety concepts, but we did not refer... 

The system safety concept involves a planned, disciplined, systematically organized and before-the-fact process characterized as the identify-analyze-control method of safety [p. 9]. 

System safety concepts promote the establishment of policies and procedures that are to achieve an effective, orderly and continuous hazards management process for the design, development, installation, and maintenance, of all facilities, materials, hardware, equipment, tooling, and products, and for their eventual disposal. 

I am aware that my outline of The System Safety Idea does not fit precisely with any of the several definitions of system safety published. It encompasses most, and goes beyond several. I hope that it s of interest to more generalists in the practice of safety than are now applying system safety concepts. 1 am confident that the application of system safety concepts in the business and industrial setting would result in significant reductions in injuries and illnesses. 

In the literature there are many citations of adverse accident experience in the military branches, which are said to have given impetus to the development of system safety concepts. The following is an example taken from Why System Safety by Charles O. Miller, a former Director of the Bureau of Aviation Safety at the National Transportation Safety Board ... 

Oddly enough, it was more the concern with unmanned systems, the intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), that led to the development of the system safety concept [p. 4]. 

And, great successes were achieved. But, I do wish that Childs latter statement—that system safety concepts which were applied in developing complex flight systems were being used to prevent accidents in the industrial environment—could be substantiated more than I have been... 

WHY SYSTEM SAFETY CONCEPTS HAVE NOT BEEN WIDELY ADOPTED... 

At least one other author expected a more widespread adoption of system safety concepts, beyond the use by the military and aerospace personnel, and nuclear facility designers. He also had to recognize that... 

And it is appropriate to recognize that system safety concepts were foundational in the development of MORT (management oversight and risk tree). References to system concepts are frequent in Johnson s MORT Safety Assurance Systems and in other literature on MORT. 

For safety generalists who take an interest in system safety concepts, I offer this short reading list ... 

As a primer. Standard Practice for System Safety, 882-D, Department of Defense. General system safety concepts and program requirements are set forth. 

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. 

I sincerely beheve that we generalists in safety practice can learn from system safety successes and be more effective in our work through adopting system safety concepts. Their application in the occupational and product safety settings would result in significant reductions in injuries and illnesses. 

The system safety discipline will require the timely identification and subsequent evaluation of the hazards associated with this operation, before losses occur. The hazards must then be either eliminated or controlled to an acceptable level of risk in order to accomplish the goal of relocating the hazardous chemicals. In short, the system safety process will identify any corrective actions that must be implemented before the task is permitted to proceed. The fly-fix-fiy approach discussed earlier has also been described as an after the fact attempt to improve operational safety performance. In contrast, the system safety concept requires before the fact control of system hazards. 

It has been suggested here that this basic system safety concept is in direct correlation with the stated intentions of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, as... 

Use of a variety of system safety concepts and tools, such as the order of precedence for hazard reduction, the hazard severity and probability tables, and... 

An as-yet-nonexistent, higher-level safety program synthesized by combining the system safety concepts pioneered by the military and aerospace industries with the best occupational safety practices and factoring in the newer concepts of behavioral, organizational, and analytical sciences... 

A collection of philosophical statements and general advice relative to the application of the MORT system safety concepts and listed criteria for an assessment of the effectiveness of their application... 

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