Why are emergency responses ineffective and inefficient? Lessons learnt from past events

Abstract

Effective and efficient emergency responses can significantly reduce damage to personnel, properties, and the environment. However, responses to emergencies are not always satisfactory. The Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) is a powerful tool for modeling and analyzing sociotechnical systems and processes, such as emergency responses. This study aimed to investigate real emergency responses using FRAM. First, a FRAM model of the emergency response process, including 21 functions, was built to explain how it is accomplished. Then, three case studies were investigated to demonstrate the applicability of the FRAM model to emergency responses. Functional variability-based analyses were conducted to identify weak points in each response. The results of this study showed that two functions with significant variability appeared in all three case studies: "developing Incident Action Plan (IAP)" and "assigning roles and responsibilities". The variability of these two functions should be managed; otherwise, it can propagate in the emergency response process, affect downstream functions, and result in negative outcomes. Effective implementation of Incident Command System (ICS) and enhancing the improvisation capacity of the organization both deem to be damping factors for successfully managing variability during emergency responses.