Category: News

Organizational/Systemic Failure: Large Organizations (February release)

September 8, 2022

I discussed previously regarding large organizations experiencing a failure, that meeting the Organizational Failure threshold depends on certain details. This development of ideas has become a long article or short book. The draft will be passed to a publisher for review in December. Long answer short: simply because large organizations (as defined by having a … More Organizational/Systemic Failure: Large Organizations (February release)

Systemic Organizational Failure Root Cause: Safety as a Standard, Part 2

May 16, 2022

In the previous post, I discussed OSHA relative to its reliability as a standard on which to judge the applicability of safety concepts. One way of looking at the field of safety is how to implement OSHA standards effectively, comprehensively, intelligently, and organically. With any type of measurement, whether quantitative with a ruler or qualitative … More Systemic Organizational Failure Root Cause: Safety as a Standard, Part 2

Systemic Organizational Failure Root Cause: Safety as a Standard, Part 1

May 9, 2022

Systems Thinking generally is evaluating a larger thing by not just the function of individual parts but also how they interact as a whole. “Thing” can be just about anything; we are interested in the multi-dimensional interaction of people, equipment, government, environment, and money flow that comprises a single organization’s place in its market. These … More Systemic Organizational Failure Root Cause: Safety as a Standard, Part 1

Organizational Failure Part 2: Crucial Deming Points

May 2, 2022

Dr. Deming was instrumental in rebuilding Japan after WW2; his radical innovation in quality control methods is summed up in 14 qualitative management guidelines. Some of these are critical to addressing and preventing organizational failure but interestingly not all. Note that in the case of systemic failure, the failure is unique in spreading between teams/organizations. … More Organizational Failure Part 2: Crucial Deming Points

Organizational Failure: Is it Systemic? Part 1

April 26, 2022

In the following weeks, we will be looking at various case studies of safety incidents that had an organizational failure as one of the root causes. Let’s look inside the Chernobyl incident. As discussed in this article, the following organizational issues occurred: RBMK reactor design flaw concealed from clients Reactor was scheduled to be tested … More Organizational Failure: Is it Systemic? Part 1

Safety+Health Magazine: Situational awareness

June 16, 2021

Several of the safety incidents that ACS professionals have investigated included workers who were distracted. Safety+Health Magazine published an article by Alan Ferguson, associate editor, “Situational awareness a ‘separate dimension of hazard control’ ” which discusses that employee training should include recognizing when he/she is not in a state of “relaxed awareness”. One of the … More Safety+Health Magazine: Situational awareness

NFPA 13 Sprinkler System Design Density Curves

May 24, 2012

NFPA 13 Sprinkler System Design Density Curves – Where Did They Come From? By: Garner A. Palenske, P.E. “The design criteria found today in NFPA 13 for storage occupancies can be traced mainly to fire tests conducted in the 1970s. These tests used standard 165°F (74°C), ½” (13 mm) orifice sprinklers and a test commodity … More NFPA 13 Sprinkler System Design Density Curves