[SystemSafety] Safety Culture

[Robin Cook]

I am sure there will be examples in both directions. This one supports Andy’s comments.

 

One company that I was working with was winning awards and  other plaudits for site health and safety. As a result there appeared to be a total lack of comprehension at senior management level for the serious issues with functional and product safety.

 

Robin Cook

Team lead for safety and sustainability

Thales Cyber & Consulting

 

 

From: systemsafety [mailto:systemsafety-bounces at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de] On Behalf Of Andy Ashworth
Sent: 10 December 2017 13:11
To: paul_e.bennett at topmail.co.uk; systemsafety at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de
Subject: Re: [SystemSafety] Safety Culture

 

I agree with your view that workplace safety can enhance product safety where the designs are deployed in the workplace. However, this correlation between workplace safety and design safety is not universal across all engineering sectors. 

 

In rail/transit, there’s little or no overlap between the people at risk and the responsible design organisation - there is very little deployment of in-house designed equipment in the workplace. Much of the major equipment is designed by specialist sub-contractors. It is left to the in-house engineers to be responsible for the safe integration of the various major subsystems - unfortunately, the focus on work-place safety in such an environment leads senior management to believe that work-place safety is the only measure they need to consider. When systems engineering is not carried out, not even non-systematically, then I believe we are compromising the safety of the travelling public who will ultimately use the transit systems currently being constructed. 

 

Andy

 

 

 

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_____________________________
From: paul_e.bennett at topmail.co.uk <mailto:paul_e.bennett at topmail.co.uk> 
Sent: Sunday, December 10, 2017 07:39
Subject: Re: [SystemSafety] Safety Culture
To: <systemsafety at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de <mailto:systemsafety at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de> >


On 10/12/2017 at 11:58 AM, "Andy Ashworth" <andy at the-ashworths.org <mailto:andy at the-ashworths.org> > wrote:
>
>Paul,
>That aspect of safety culture addresses work place employee 
>safety. The company I currently work for have a reasonably strong 
>culture with respect to such safety; with respect to funcational 
>system safety, however, their processes followed are totally 
>different matter. If design engineers are not systematically 
>considering functional safety during their work, I would suggest 
>that a company does not have a good safety cultue. A strong safety 
>culture to me is one where safety is considered during all stages 
>of a system’s deployment is considered systematically, including 
>ultimate third-party end-use, and not just focused on the 
>employees of the design/construction organisation.
>Andy

Andy,

Whilst your observation was correct in that the examples I gave were
to do with workplace safety, I find that such a focused culture will tend to
do better when dealing with functional safety of the equipment they use
and/or deploy in their workplace. The sense of their culture makes an
impact into their supply chain. If such organisations design systems for
themselves they will have functional safety very much in mind as a
natural part of their development strategy. It is, after all, a synergistic
relationship.


Regards

Paul E. Bennett IEng MIET
Systems Engineer
Lunar Mission One Ambassador
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