Can software make people safer?
During my recent advertising campaign a question was put to me that I liked and that was "Can if make people safer?"
In itself, I suppose I would have to say that it does not. Any tool is only as good as the person that uses it so it is possible to use the best software in the land and still have accidents.
Personally I think that any good software system helps to speed up processes such as risk assessment, for example. A lot, if not all, of the information you require is accessible from one place. It is also readily searchable and sortable so you can get to the facts. However, if those facts are not entered accurately or in a timely fashion then you may as well have them all on paper, locked in a cabinet in a cellar guarded by a panther (yes I like The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) - and we all know businesses that behave like that. I literally have photos of procedures with dust on them from factories I have visited.
So, to a large extent it depends on how you use it. If data is entered for an accident, you can have instant access and begin your investigation when you want to instead of a form being filled in and finding its way to you...well, whenever.
All of which can add up to meaning that the reports are right up to date. There is no going in to a board meeting only to find that someone else knows of an incident you haven't been told about yet - because why would anyone bother telling the safety manager, we've all been there.
Overall, I like the question. It points to the fact that you need to use all tools correctly and software is no different. If you have to knock a nail into apiece of wood you could do it with your hands but wouldn't it be less painful to use a good quality hammer?
Now the advert bit, there are lots of good software systems available and I think our software at Cantiaci is good value for money.
Any comments are welcome. I know there are two sides to this debate.
Director at Shropshire Safety
7 å¹´Andy Farrall FIIRSM CMIOSH MIIAI MInstLM I think the answer to your question is yes. It needs some careful design but in some instances I think it would be a good idea. In fact, as I write, it dawns on me that in some cases such as robotics in the motor industry the software design has to take failure modes and maintenance modes into account. As for the system learning from incidents, well I hope it ends up being better than people learning from incidents because sometimes that can be like banging your head against a brick wall. :)
Accredited safety management consultant; special interest in crisis management systems; experienced international speaker on safety management and human error
7 å¹´I've been giving David's initial question some further thought (I really should get out more!) and would like to add a supplementary question: do we need to build strong health & safety safeguards into the actual process of industrial software design? Consider, for a moment, the fact that some programs are deliberately designed to learn from, and correct, their mistakes. If the program is controlling not just a single machine but a complete production system should it (does it) not also take into account the health & safety requirements of operatives rather than concentrate on just the physical/ chemical processes involved in production? Evidence already exists that such "fuzzy logic" programs can provide results which are unexpected and unwanted (unwanted by humans, that is). The stock market has seen examples of share prices changing dramatically and without warning as computer trading systems kick in. The stock market is only about money (!) but imagine the catastrophic effects if a fully computerised oil refinery were to go "rogue" by pumping out vast quantities of effluent in the pursuit of increased refined oil production. Just a thought ... :0)
Accredited safety management consultant; special interest in crisis management systems; experienced international speaker on safety management and human error
7 å¹´There is also the problem that, as software becomes ever more complex, even small changes to the software coding has the potential to generate unexpected results. Some programmes can contain a million lines of code; so calculating the precise effect overall of changing just one line could prove a potential headache (nightmare) for the software engineers. As a practical example look at the introduction of Microsoft Windows 10. Many people complained that installing the new programme made it difficult - if not impossible - to access their existing documents. Of course, Microsoft never intended for that to happen, but they simply couldn't predict all the possible outcomes of using Windows 10 with existing packages. And there have been cases where banks have upgraded their software, and as a result their whole banking process has crashed resulting in thousands of customers being frozen out of their accounts! So, to summarise my personal view, software CAN help make people safer - but it's not the universal answer to providing safe environments.
Accredited safety management consultant; special interest in crisis management systems; experienced international speaker on safety management and human error
7 å¹´Software is a tool, nothing more and nothing less. However, the right software can be, for example, very useful in helping to make sense of complexity. In a previous existence (when I was in law enforcement) I trained as an intelligence analyst. The software package we used was brilliant at identifying links between a wide range of of data items contained within thousands of statements and other pieces of evidence. Making such links manually would have been extremely time consuming and probably far less efficient. From a health & safety viewpoint packages are available for use in areas such as accident investigation which can assist in analyzing data to identify the root cause of an accident. So software can help make situations safer, but whether people actually learn from what the software reveals is another matter :0)
Vorstand
7 å¹´The more complexity we add, the more so far unkown issues can arise. Not everything possible is value-adding. Key is perception of risk and decision making... these are mental processes.