Suchergebnisse

The two cardinal aspects of safety are intrinsic safety and its demonstration. A key element of demonstrating system safety is the organizational structure that is best placed to ensure and demonstrate that high standards of safety are clearly in place for its products, processes and facilities. This is particularly important for high-consequence industries. Accomplishing this depends on a number of organizational integrated layers of scrutiny, ranging from the accumulation of arguments and evidence at the lower levels to final executive decision making. The latter holds final responsibility and accountability. Potential problems arise because products, processes and facilities are becoming more and more complex and the associated supporting data inordinately large. In turn, the organizational processes that enable top-level decision makers to make wise and informed decisions are themselves becoming more complex and difficult. This final stage requires clear and transparent communication. Organizations have moved more towards the application of peer review to support final decision making but, nevertheless, one still expects the final decision-making layer to provide further independent scrutiny to enhance overall confidence in the process. This would represent a three-tier independent process — strength in depth. This is the subject of the paper.

In recent years, there has been a falling off of membership in the International System Safety Society and attendance at its annual International System Safety Conference (ISSC). There are a number of reasons for this, including: The recent tight budget constraints on government and independent organizations A growing loss of younger Society membership The impression that the Society no longer serves a unique niche in the world of system safety The first aspect needs no further consideration, apart from how one continues to make the case to organizations about the benefits of active membership in the Society and attendance at its meetings. Typically, one might note the value of networking with peers, learning what's new and topical in system safety. I suppose one must also ask how organizations typically view graded membership in the Society as compared to equivalent membership in more formal institutions. More specifically, what does the Society's membership and level mean to the individual and the organization in terms of achieving improved performance? What benefits do organizations gain from Society membership of advertising the pedigree of its workforce? Has there been an organizational review of this nature?

"This book contains the Naval Staff History originally issued by the Admiralty in 1957 as a confidential book for use within the Royal Navy. It has since been declassified and is published here for the first time, along with an extended preface."