#20 Safety Engineering; MW, 3:00-4:00pm

MABASA, NATHAN B. Dr. Walter Joaqin

BSME

SAFETY AND HUMAN ERROR IN ENGINEERING SYSTEM

After reading some articles and books about safety and human error in
engineering system I learned and observed that all technology comes with risk. The only way to
build a completely safe system is not to build it. The goal of System Safety is accurate risk
estimation to support informed decision making. The division between humanity and
“technology” is not as clear as it might first seem. Human is sometimes defined by tool use or
the application of intelligence to problem solving. Humans shape their environment, starting with
stone tools and agriculture and continuing with mining, organized production, global operations
etc. etc. But technology also shapes humans and their society’s better tools mean more
opportunity, a wider theatre of development, more wealth, and more freedom from risk.

Engineering, loosely defined, has been around as long as technology has. Early humans
who invented better tools, improved their living quarters, and generally sought a better bargain
with the environment were engineering. The modern definition and practice of engineering,
applying the scientific method to not only building, but analysing problems and predicting the
effectiveness of un-built solutions, has developed alongside modern technology.

System Safety, a sub-discipline of Systems Engineering has a history only a few decades
long. System Safety is one method of communication between the Engineering process working
on a system and the Decision-Making process which must decide if the Risks involved in the
system are acceptable. Decision makers inform the engineers on the level of Risk which will be
acceptable for a project, and the engineers estimate the Risk inherent in the current design so that
the decision makers can make informed decisions. Engineering systems are an important
element of the world economy as each year billions of dollars are spent to develop, manufacture,
and operate various types of engineering systems around the globe. A rise in accidental deaths
has put the spotlight on the role human error plays in the safety and failure of these systems.
Written by an expert in various aspects of healthcare, engineering management, design,
reliability, safety, and quality.

Human error in engineering system; Human error is inevitable. It happens in health care systems
as it does in all other complex systems, and no measure of attention, training, dedication, or
punishment is going to stop it. These are the some things that I learned from the articles.