Highly Reliable Organizations (HRO) prevent catastrophic results from occurring in processes with... more Highly Reliable Organizations (HRO) prevent catastrophic results from occurring in processes with the potential for such accidents. The basis of the existing HRO research is qualitative not quantitative. This report will seek to establish a quantitative basis for HROs. This will create an accurate measure of whether or not a process is highly reliable or how to achieve a highly reliable organization or process. HRO processes with risks and barriers to those risks will be analyzed and modeled using VENSIM software. The effectivity of the barriers can then be determined allowing for a quantitative measure of the HRO process. Causal Loop Diagrams will be used in the analysis of the barriers. The quantitative determination of the basis of the process can then be used to determine the economic benefit of the introduction of the HRO process.
Most organizations hope for perfection, but do not expect it. After all people make mistakes and ... more Most organizations hope for perfection, but do not expect it. After all people make mistakes and machines break down. Yet there are large and highly complex organizations such as nuclear power plants, navy aircraft carriers and medical service providers, whose goal must be to operate near perfection. These organizations are known as high reliability organizations (HROs). Recently more organizations have shown an interest in procedures needed to become HROs. While research into HROs has been commonplace, not much is known about how non- HROs can develop into an HRO. The purpose of this article is to present a guideline for a theoretical HRO development framework using general systems theory. The process combines process flow analysis, opportunity cost issues, quality and safety check points. The resulting framework will assist managers in the pursuit of a robust systems model which is better suited for system dynamic analysis and helps to better determine system behavior over time. T...
Highly Reliable Organizations (HRO) prevent catastrophic results from occurring in processes with... more Highly Reliable Organizations (HRO) prevent catastrophic results from occurring in processes with the potential for such accidents. The basis of the existing HRO research is qualitative not quantitative. This report will seek to establish a quantitative basis for HROs. This will create an accurate measure of whether or not a process is highly reliable or how to achieve a highly reliable organization or process. HRO processes with risks and barriers to those risks will be analyzed and modeled using VENSIM software. The effectivity of the barriers can then be determined allowing for a quantitative measure of the HRO process. Causal Loop Diagrams will be used in the analysis of the barriers. The quantitative determination of the basis of the process can then be used to determine the economic benefit of the introduction of the HRO process.
Most organizations hope for perfection, but do not expect it. After all people make mistakes and ... more Most organizations hope for perfection, but do not expect it. After all people make mistakes and machines break down. Yet there are large and highly complex organizations such as nuclear power plants, navy aircraft carriers and medical service providers, whose goal must be to operate near perfection. These organizations are known as high reliability organizations (HROs). Recently more organizations have shown an interest in procedures needed to become HROs. While research into HROs has been commonplace, not much is known about how non- HROs can develop into an HRO. The purpose of this article is to present a guideline for a theoretical HRO development framework using general systems theory. The process combines process flow analysis, opportunity cost issues, quality and safety check points. The resulting framework will assist managers in the pursuit of a robust systems model which is better suited for system dynamic analysis and helps to better determine system behavior over time. T...
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Papers by Kurt McElwain