Abstract
Safety is of paramount concern in aerospace and aviation. Safety has evolved over the years, from the technical era to the human-factors era and organizational era, and finally to the present era of systems-thinking. Building upon three foundational concepts of systems-thinking, a new safety concept called “integration-in-totality principle” is propounded in this article as part of a “seven-principles-framework of system safety”, to act as an integrated framework to visualize and model system safety. The integration-in-totality principle concept addresses the need to have a holistic ‘vertical and horizontal integration’, which is a key tenet of systems thinking. The integration-in-totality principle is illustrated and elucidated with the help of a simple “Rubik’s cube model of integration-in-totality principle” with three orthogonal axes, the ‘axis of perspective’ of vertical integration, and the two ‘axes of perception and performance’ of horizontal integration. Safety analysis along the three axes with a ‘bidirectional synthesis’ and ‘continuum approach’ is further elaborated with relevant case studies, one among them related to the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft twin disasters. Safety is directly linked to quality, reliability and risk, through a self-reinforcing reflexive paradigm, and airworthiness assurance is the process through which safety concepts are embedded in a multidisciplinary aviation environment where the system of systems is seamlessly operating. The article explains how the system safety principle of integration-in-totality is related to reliability and airworthiness of an aerospace system with the help of the ‘V-model of systems engineering’. The article also establishes the linkage between integration-in-totality principle and strategic quality management, thus bridging the gap between two parallel fields of knowledge.
Highlights
Accidents and serious incidents continue to occur in the field of aviation and no further emphasis is required on the requirement to abate potential hazards in aviation systems
Safety is directly linked to quality, reliability and risk, through a self-reinforcing reflexive paradigm, and airworthiness assurance is the process through which safety concepts are embedded in a multidisciplinary aviation environment where the system of systems is seamlessly operating
The article explains how the system safety principle of integration-in-totality is related to reliability and airworthiness of an aerospace system with the help of the ‘V-model of systems engineering’
Summary
Accidents and serious incidents continue to occur in the field of aviation and no further emphasis is required on the requirement to abate potential hazards in aviation systems. In the remaining sections of this article, the authors will discuss the new safety concepts of the ‘integration-in-totality principle’, as well as the ‘seven-principles-framework of system safety principles’ to which it belongs. These new concepts are meant to enhance the understanding on safety-critical socio-technical systems in their entirety, incorporating the key tenets of systems thinking. Before getting into the details of the ‘integration-in-totality principle’, it is worthwhile to present a brief background, and the need to have a fresh outlook and an augmentation of the existing concepts It is a well-established fact that there exist multiple root causes and failure modes in real life complex systems that could complement each other.
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