The History of System Safety

That this approach was not acceptable for certain programs— such as nuclear weapons and space travel—soon became apparent, at least to some. The consequences of accidents were too great. Trial-and-error and fly-fix-fly approaches were not adequate for systems that had to be firsttime safe. 

system safety was bom, or, more accurately, evolved. The history of system safety consists of 

The roots of the system safety effort extend back at least to the 1940s and 1950s. Accurately tracing the early transition from the traditional trial-and-error approach to safety to the first-time safe effort that lies at the heart of system safety is really impossible, but such a transition occurred as both aircraft and weapon systems became more complex and the consequences of accidents became less acceptable. 

System Safety for the 21 Century The Updated and Revised Edition of System Safety 2000, by Richard A. Stephans 

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A bit of history on the evolution of system safety will give an insight into its origins, the need for the hazard analysis and risk assessment techniques which were developed, and the place that system safety has attained. Authors don t agree on when or where it all started. But, all the historical references on system safety do relate to the military or to aeronautics. 

C. W. Childs, in Industrial Accident Prevention Through System Safety, gives this brief history of the origins of system safety ... 

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. 

The history of human factors in the French railway sector is long, even if it clearly remains within the deterministic paradigm. The addition of a safety installation increases the level of system safety only if the safe and unsafe failure rates are sufficiently low to compensate for the reduced reliability of the human operator in the application of procedures. This finding is particularly important in that such an addition is considered useful only when the increase in traffic overloads the operator whose error rate in applying the procedures is then judged unacceptable. 

The safety performance of pipeline systems, as determined from an analysis of the history of pipeline... 

The nature of the book, xi Inspiration, acknowledgements and thanks, xiii SECTION ONE The Evolution of Patient Safety Chapter 1 Medical harm a brief history, 3 Chapter 2 The emergence of patient safety, 14 Chapter 3 Integrating safety and quality, 31 SECTION TWO The Hazards of Healthcare Chapter 4 The nature and scale of error and harm, 49 Chapter 5 Reporting and learning systems, 75 Chapter 6 Measuring safety, 96... 

Safety aspects should partner the measures practised within a quality system, and they represent a vital part of the education and training of the personnel involved. The history of adhesive bonding has shown that accident and health problems associated with the technology are rare. Nevertheless, any material which is used without suitable precautions can become an unreasonable risk to health, safety, property, and the environment. The actual hazard presented by the use of materials depends not only on its potential hazard, but also on the conditions under which it is used. Concentration and duration of exposure to hazardous materials is generally the critical element in determining risk factors. 

Gives a history of the origin, development, and application of system safety methods. 

System Safety for the 21st Century is an update by Richard Stephans (2004) of System Safety 2000 by Joe Stephenson. Stephans followed the advice given to keep it as a primer. This book begins with a history... 

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