Avoiding safety-management errors in the next generation

Abstract

This paper provides discussion items identifying safety management errors which should be unacceptable to safety management, particularly in the next generation due to the fact that the costs of noncompliance are simply too high. Safety management failures can be the final basis of program termination if there is a failure to properly analyze subsystems. Without the protection of proper hazard controls, catastrophic system failures may be the outcome. Some hazards slip through the cracks despite significant efforts to prevent it. However, it is the failure to apply acknowledged techniques in a proper and professional manner that should be totally unacceptable to safety managers, and will certainly be unacceptable to senior corporate managers in the next generation. Following the recommendations included in the paper could provide a reasonable means of assuring that frequent failures by safety management do not occur.