Introduction
Some fundamentals of safety engineering
When speaking about safety engineering, I would like to consider some fundamentals of the so-called requirements engineering. First of all, I would like to point out that RE is considered to be a collection of the tasks, which are to be done in an ongoing manner. It should be pointed out that because of poor requirements some problems appear.
Generally, ambiguous requirements are related to safety issues. For instance, when speaking about safe systems, it is necessary to clarify how safe the system should be or in what way the system should be safe. When speaking about safety engineering, one is to keep in mind the definition of the term.
Thus, safety engineering is considered to be “the engineering discipline within systems engineering that lowers the risk of accidental harm to valuable assets to an acceptable level to legitimate stakeholders” (Firesmith 22). Basic safety concepts include safety mechanisms, certain goals and policies, safety risks, hazards, safety events, accidental harm, valuable assets, safety quality subfactors and safety as a quality factor.
So, let’s consider the last safety concept in detail. First of all, one is to keep in mind that safety captures the degree to which safety risks can be lowered; hazards can be mitigated; accidents and incidents can be avoided (or at least when the consequences of hazardous events can be limited or mitigated).
The corresponding safety subfactors include safety problem type and safety solution type. The fist category (safety problem type) consists of accidental harm, safety event, hazards, and safety risk. Safety solution type includes prevention, detection, reaction and adaptation. So, safety problem type and safety solution type form the so-called safety subfactors.
When speaking about certain negative consequences safety measures are related to, there is a need to highlight the meaning of harm. So, the harm is recognized as to be any major (important) negative result to a valuable asset. Accidental harm is “any unauthorized unintentional (i.e., non-malicious) harm (i.e., due to an accident)” (Firesmith 27).
Harm severity allows us to understand the amount of harm. Such categorization can be clearly identified or, on the contrary, unambiguously. Harm severity categories may include catastrophic conditions, severe-major conditions, major conditions, minor conditions, and no-effect conditions.
Safety-related events include an accident trigger, a harm event, and a hazardous event. Safety hazards include danger, hazard, and threat. Safety goals seem to be the desires concerning safety conditions. The following statements are related to safety desires: no serious accidents must occur; the system, the equipment, etc. is to be safe; however, the peculiarity of safety goals is that they are considered to be unrealistic.
In other words, it is impossible to guarantee that no serious accidents can be. On the other hand, it is also necessary to understand that goals can’t be compared with the requirements. Generally, “a major problem is safety goals that are specified as if they were verifiable requirements” (Firesmith 46).
Safety policy gives us an opportunity to achieve various safety goals. In most cases, safety policies are mostly associated with safety requirements; however, the difference between these two notions is substantial. Safety-related requirements include safety constraints, safety-significant requirements, safety subsystem requirements, and safety requirements.
The importance of safety culture and management
To achieve safety goals, any organization is to be familiar with safety culture. So, what is the safety culture?
A culture is a shared set of norms and values, a way of looking at and interpreting the world and events around us (our mental model) and taking action in a social context. Safety culture is the subset of culture that reflects the general attitude and approaches to safety and risk management (Leveson 245).
In Tulsa University, there is no lack of clear safety policies and programs for the students and the university in general. Of course, this situation doesn’t put the lives of students, staff, and the whole of the university community at considerable risk; however, there are no major subjects or courses, which discuss the aspects of safety engineering.
Leveson states that safety culture seems to be the subset of “an organizational or industry culture that reflects the general attitude and approaches to safety and risk management. It is important to note that trying to change culture without changing the environment in which it is embedded is doomed to failure” (p. 2).
Since we already know the importance of safety engineering and that it shows up in every other field, for example, mechanical, chemical and electrical engineering, you still can not study safety engineering in Tulsa University, because it is not available, as a major subject to study, even with knowing how important and popular this major is becoming.
Safety engineering is really the important science as it gives the students the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of safety regulations. For instance, the students could learn the basic first-aid measures in a case of various accidents. While studying safety engineering, the students could become familiar with general safety regulations to ensure the safety of people. For instance, everybody knows that
“Fire, open lights, and smoking are forbidden in specially posted areas. In addition, smoking is forbidden in all forest areas and in areas where unsealed radioactive substances are handled” (“General Safety Regulations,” 4). The students could study in details not only the basic regulations, but they could realize the importance of safety engineering when studying the major properly.
Safety engineering gives the students an opportunity to enlarge their knowledge concerning safety. For instance, the students could learn that devices and equipment of IT “may be put into operation by authorized persons only. It is the responsibility of each organizational unit to specify regulations for admittance and for their use and to control the observance of the regulations” (“General Safety Regulations,” 4).
Still, when speaking about a strong safety culture, there is a need to disclose the role of the organizational structure. So, some safety groups in Tulsa University must be created. The formal safety roles are to be distributed among executives. On the other hand, organizational subsystems are also to be created.
So, safety engineering must be based on “safety information systems to support planning, analysis and decision making; reward and reinforcement systems; selection and retention systems that promote safety knowledge, skills, and ability; learning and feedback systems from incidents, operational anomalies, and other aspects of operational experience” (Leveson 246).
Certain procedures, which are related to the above-mentioned statement, are to be considered in detail. Of course, these procedures are significant, when discussing safety concerns. While speaking about the safety information system, I have to point out that communication channels are also extremely important. By the way, these channels can be formal or informal.
The so-called reinforcement systems can help the executives to avoid conflicting incentives. “Selection and retention systems are relevant to safety with respect to the skill sets and mindsets that are emphasized in hiring” (Leveson 246).
I suppose that safety engineering must also include social interaction processes. In other words, the students should study the basic principles of problem-solving and decision-making in respect of safety. They say that, “problem solving after incidents and operational anomalies is an important component of the safety culture, particularly as it relates to identifying and eliminating root causes rather than merely the symptoms of the deeper problems” (Leveson 246).
Individual motivation seems to be an integral part of safety engineering, as it covers numerous factors including uncertainty in facing safety concerns. Of course, the most important points of safety engineering are considered to be safety rules. When speaking about safety activities, one is to keep in mind their basic principles.
Thus, system safety should influence decision making; direct communication channels are to be developed. The students must understand that “safety concerns span the life cycle and safety should be involved in just about every aspect of development and operations. Safety concerns are an integral part of most engineering activities” (Leveson 247).
Thus, the importance of implementing the special courses and programs of safety engineering in Tulsa University also depends on the fact that the knowledge on the principles of safety engineering is required for providing the design and maintenance of the system engineering. Moreover, the students should know and understand all the basic principles of the operation and management of the systems and the necessary equipment.
It is impossible to provide the effective practice as an engineer without deepening the knowledge on safety engineering. Furthermore, those students who want to become specialists in this sphere should also have the opportunity to realize such intentions in Tulsa University.
Safety engineering course or the major is necessary for the students to contribute to their future professional development, to their understanding the principles of the safety risk management and knowing the ways of solving its challenges with references to the knowledge on hazard identification, hazard assessment, and its further reduction.
It is important to develop the course for the future engineering managers and practitioners where they could consult professionals in relation to the most significant questions and issues of this scientific field. It is necessary to have the opportunity not only to receive the basic knowledge on the principles of safety engineering but also focus on this problem in detail and to have a chance to get the specific qualification.
According to these requirements, the course in safety engineering should be organized in such a way to provide the complex analysis of the issues of hazard identification, risk reduction, and safety management. It is possible to realize with references to definite case studies as the examples of the accidents and incidents.
It is also important for students to discuss the peculiarities of the specific terminology, necessary standards, and paradigms in safety engineering in the context of the separate course or program the completion of which could give the students more opportunities.
Conclusion
Generally, safety engineering processes must be consistent, performed collaboratively and properly interwoven. On the other hand, safety engineering requires appropriate expertise, tools, special techniques, innovative methods, and concepts.
In my opinion, the students in the universities should also study basic systems engineering activities, because “system safety should be treated as an integral component of systems engineering, as is common in the defense industry” (Leveson 49).
Works Cited
Firesmith, Donald. Engineering Safety-Related Requirements for Software-Intensive Systems. 2005. Web.
General Safety Regulations 2005. Web. <http://www.knmf.kit.edu/img/KNMF_Safety_Regulations.pdf>.
Leveson, Nancy. System Safety Engineering: Back to The Future. 2002. Web. <http://sunnyday.mit.edu/book2.pdf>.