Modern Socio-technical Systems Research Articles

A novel approach for the analysis of engineering complex system accidents: The casualty of the M/V Vitaspirit

Modern sociotechnical engineering systems are comprised of dynamic and complicated man-machine-software interactions. These complex systems, such as ships, also pose a wide range of catastrophic risks. In this study, a real ship casualty that occurred in recent years was analysed using the rule-based Fuzzy Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FFMEA). FMEA is a risk analysis technique applied before the event; however, it has been used in this paper as an accident analysis tool by handling its limitations in a fuzzy environment. A bulk carrier case was evaluated by revealing its 15 root causes with expert judgment. Then, the most critical factors are found as poor situational awareness about ship technical specifications (R7), delayed notification of the main engine cooling water leakage to the bridge (R5), and lack of reporting about the failure cannot be repaired without stoppage of the main engine (R6). Furthermore, RPN and FRPN outputs were compared and corrective actions for the critical factors offered. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate that the rule-based FFMEA is an effective method that can be applied in the accident analysis process. The findings of the study can provide significant perspectives for stakeholders to take risk-reduction measures at both onboard and company levels.

Pro-Social Rule Breaking as a Benchmark of Ethical Intelligence in Socio-Technical Systems

The current mainstream approaches to ethical intelligence in modern socio-technical systems have weaknesses. This paper argues that implementing and validating pro-social rule breaking behaviour can be used as a mechanism to overcome these weaknesses and introduce a sample scenario that can be used to validate this behaviour.

A systems-theoretic hazard analysis for safety-critical medical gas pipeline and oxygen supply systems

Medical gas systems are safety-critical systems due to their association with critical care situations. In particular, the oxygen gas supply system contains many complications represented in the interactions between human and equipment while operating the system and managing emergencies. Therefore, it contains many hazards that require high safety standards to maintain the integrity of the system. The traditional hazard analysis methods suffer from weaknesses as their linear reasoning assumption cannot adequately describe the actual behavior of modern socio-technical systems that are characterized by tight couplings and complex interactions among technical, human and organizational aspects. Alternatively, Systems Theoretical Process Analysis (STPA) is a new hazard analysis approach that accounts for the causal relationships between system components and their unsafe interactions, allowing the integration of both occupational and process safety. STPA is widely used in the automotive, aviation, and aerospace industries whereas there are a few applications of STPA in healthcare domain. This paper proposes the use of STPA methodology in analyzing the hazards related to the medical gas pipeline and oxygen supply systems in a low-medium income country. Specifically, the analysis considers the emergencies that stem from the total or partial failure of oxygen supply and the hazards related to temporary restoration of the medical oxygen system. The results indicate that STPA contributes to identifying the hazards resulting from the interference between the human, machines, and equipment, and studying the unsafe effect of the system elements on each other. This research suggests control measures to prevent the unsafe interaction of the system components and improve the response time to oxygen failure incidents, which greatly reduces the potential consequences.

Toward the incorporation of temporal interaction analysis techniques in modeling and understanding sociotechnical systems

AbstractThe increased complexity of modern sociotechnical systems (STS) necessitates the need for a manageable representation of their attributes, to augment our understanding and enable the development of ways through which we can increase their effectiveness, efficiency, and safety. Although many of the methodologies developed in the Human Factors domain map and investigate system properties and network structures, the inclusion of the temporal dimension in the analysis of STS remains limited. In this paper we present how modeling and visualization of STS can be augmented with the incorporation of temporal interaction analysis techniques that enable a micro‐level, fine‐grained analysis of data. We provide an overview of temporal analysis techniques by breaking down their main function, requirements, types of research questions they can address, and the visualization properties they offer, attempting to enhance their use in system analysis. This overview can assist researchers in selecting an analysis technique, enabling the incorporation of temporality in STS analysis, and helping towards the design of improved and safer systems and interventions.

A inversão do COVID-19: equivocação controlada de infraestruturas de informação a partir do xamanismo ameríndio

A pandemia do coronavírus COVID-19 revelou fragilidades nos sistemas sócio-técnicos modernos. No Sul global, ela tornou visível o projeto político/empresarial que se beneficia de opressões enquanto se esquiva de discursos internacionais de preservação das pessoas e da natureza. Através do entrelaçamento dos conceitos de inversão infraestrutural, dos estudos de infraestrutura, com os conceitos de Omama, Urihi-a, Hutukara e Xawara do xamanismo yanomami, este ensaio busca compreender as conexões político-ecológicas que se tornaram aparentes durante o fenômeno da pandemia no Brasil. O trabalho reconstrói a narrativa da pandemia a partir do mapeamento das relações históricas de opressões que emergiram durante este processo. O texto se encerra com reflexões e apontamentos metodológicos sobre possibilidades de mudança de foco nas práticas de projetos de infraestruturas de informação a partir do pensamento ameríndio.

For Whom the Tale’s Told: Towards a Multidimensional Model of Targeted Narrative Persuasion in Information Operations

The modern information environment provides an opportunity for cognitive engineering to inform the study of information operations, which involve strategic, often politically-motivated actions to manipulate a targeted audience. In this paper we integrate interdisciplinary theoretical concepts to provide a foundation for a model of persuasion in information operations. We identify sensemaking and framing as key processes and connect these to narrative and identity theories to illustrate how they can inform the study of the individual and the collective in modern sociotechnical systems. From this, we propose a model of narrative persuasion to guide research on social media information operations. Through this, we offer a set of research guidelines to demonstrate how this can serve as a foundation for empirical work blending quantitative and qualitative methods. In this way, we show how cognitive and computational sciences can be blended in support of fundamental and applied research in information operations.

A Proposition for Combining Rough Sets, Fuzzy Logic and FRAM to Address Methodological Challenges in Safety Management: A Discussion Paper

In recent years, the focus in safety management has shifted from failure-based analysis towards a more systemic perspective, redefining a successful or failed performance as a complex and emergent event rather than as a conclusion of singular errors or root causes. This paradigm shift has also necessitated the introduction of innovative tools capable of capturing the complex and dynamic nature of modern sociotechnical systems. In our research, we argued at previous stages for adopting a more systemic and human-centric perspective to evaluate the context of aircraft de-icing operations. The Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) was applied in the first stage for this purpose. Consequently, fuzzy logic was combined with FRAM in the second stage to provide a quantified representation of performance variability. Fuzzy logic was used as a quantification tool suitable for computing with natural language. Several limitations were found in the data collection and rule generation process for the first prototype. In the third phase, the model was further improved by integrating rough sets as a data-mining tool to generate and reduce the size of the rule base and classify outcomes. In this paper, we reflect on the three stages of the project and discuss in a qualitative manner the challenges and limitations faced in the development and application of the models. A summary of the advantages and disadvantages of the three models as experienced in our case are presented at the end. The objective is to present an outlook for future studies to address methodological limitations in the study of complex sociotechnical systems.

Systemic safety management in anesthesiological practices

Anesthesiological practices are complex activities with inherent risks. Hazard assessment techniques based on cause-effect links and linear reasoning do not adequately represent the actual behavior of modern socio-technical systems, which are characterized by tight couplings and interactions among technical, human and organizational aspects. Analysing hazards following a linear perspective may result in a not completely effective management of process safety. This paper discusses the need for a systemic analysis for healthcare practices, applying such perspective to an anesthesiological process. More specifically, it aims to define process hazards, and unsafe control actions for preoperative and intraoperative anesthesiological activities, extending simple cause-effect reasoning through the System Theoretic Accident Model and Processes (STAMP) and its hazard analysis technique, i.e. System Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA). The outcomes of the study based on qualitative research techniques point out the relevance of a systemic approach, with implications for process management. It is argued that the adoption of strict procedures to constraint the variability of everyday work represents a valuable solution only for some specific tasks, while for many others variability has to be accepted as a means to enhance patient safety in a healthy work environment.

Closed-loop Rescheduling using Deep Reinforcement Learning

Fil: Palombarini, Jorge Andres. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Centro Cientifico Tecnologico Conicet - Cordoba. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Villa Maria. Universidad Nacional de Villa Maria. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Villa Maria; Argentina

A new structure of sociotechnical system processes using resilience engineering

In the context of a world dominated by growing uncertainty, complex sociotechnical systems find themselves confronted with unexpected disruptions, which may lead to significant losses. To cope with these adverse events, modern sociotechnical systems constantly seek out ways of enlarging their ability to absorb and recover from disturbance, a capacity that we call resilience. With the aim of helping systems fulfill this mission, many research works have been conducted to develop methods for measuring, evaluating, and increasing the system’s resilience. One of the approaches, which arise from these works, is resilience engineering, a paradigm within which this article proposes a new structure of sociotechnical system processes, characterized by the introduction of resilience processes and their association with the other process categories. To illustrate the new proposed structure, we implemented a metamodel using the systems modeling language. Then, we focused on the resilience process behavior in a crisis through a qualitative and quantitative study accomplished by applying system dynamics approach. This article also develops a scoring system to assess the resilience of sociotechnical system processes and rank them based on the results.

A Proposal for a Predictive Performance Assessment Model in Complex Sociotechnical Systems Combining Fuzzy Logic and the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM)

Modern sociotechnical systems exhibit dynamic and complex behavior, which can be difficult to anticipate, model and evaluate. The perpetually evolving nature and the emergent properties of such systems require a continuous re-evaluation of adopted safety and risk analysis methods to comply with arising challenges and ensure successful performance. One of the interesting methods proposed in recent years is the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM). FRAM adopts a systemic perspective to model sociotechnical systems characterizing non-linear relationships and quality of outcome arising from performance variability and functional resonance. This paper aims to further improve the framework and expand the spectrum of features provided by FRAM through the integration of fuzzy logic. Fuzzy logic offers adequate mathematical tools capable of quantifying qualitative concepts and uncertain information applying comprehensible inference systems based on human judgement. An example of a possible application scenario is included through a simulation of aircraft on-ground deicing operations. The preliminary results of this project present an approach to generate numerical indicators for the quality of outputs, which can allow for a more comprehensible representation of potential performance variability. The presented model, however, requires further validation and optimization work to provide more representative and reliable results.

Human Performance Modelling for Adaptive Automation Journal of Physics: Conference Series

The relentless march of technology is increasingly opening new possibilities for the application of automation and new horizons for human machine interaction. However there is insufficient scientific evidence on human factors for modern socio-technical systems supporting the guidelines currently used to design Human Machine Interfaces (HMI) (ISA 2014). This dearth of knowledge presents a particular risk in safety critical industries. The continuing 60–90% of accidents currently that are rooted in Human Factors (HF) and the rapid developments in the Internet of Things (IoT) and its novel automation archetypes means that the requirements for new interfaces are becoming more demanding, and creating new failure modes. To address this gap it is necessary to face the issue of modelling the human factor element and be ready to incorporate that knowledge into the design of adaptive automation.

Advancing a Systemic Perspective on Multidisciplinary Teams: A Comparative Case Study of Work Organisation in Four Multiple Sclerosis Hospitals.

Introduction:Many care organisations claim to employ multidisciplinary teams, but the term is used to describe quite different forms of collaboration. A systemic view of the work organisation of care delivery is presented and applied in this article that allows to identify and understand often overlooked yet important differences regarding team composition, working relationships and therapeutic relationships.Theory and Methods:We used modern socio-technical systems theory to study care delivery for a particular patient population as a system of interrelated activities. The concept of work organisation refers to the way in which the composite task of care delivery is divided into distinct tasks and how these are grouped in either monodisciplinary or multidisciplinary organisational units. The systemic perspective was applied in a comparative case study of four Multiple Sclerosis hospitals.Results:Among the hospitals, one was characterised by a functional work organisation, with similar tasks grouped in monodisciplinary teams. Cross-disciplinary working and therapeutic relationships were established on an ad hoc basis. The three other hospitals adopted a more process-oriented work organisation (which groups all tasks related to a specific care process within a single, multidisciplinary team). The more process-oriented the work organisation, the more working relationships and therapeutic relationships appeared to be fixed and continuous.Conclusion and discussion:The systemic view adopted in this study yields a better understanding of multidisciplinary teams through the concept of work organisation. The actual composition of multidisciplinary teams, and the related working and therapeutic relationships will vary depending on the type of underlying work organisation. Further validation of this conclusion will be needed in other settings.

Systemic approaches to incident analysis in aviation: Comparison of STAMP, agent-based modelling and institutions

The rapid development and increasing complexity of modern socio-technical systems suggest an urgent need for systemic safety analysis approaches because traditional linear models cannot cope with this complexity. In the aviation safety literature, among systemic accident and incident analysis methods, Systems Theoretic Accident Modelling and Processes (STAMP) and Agent-based modelling (ABM) are the most cited ones. STAMP is a qualitative analysis approach known for its thoroughness and comprehensiveness. Computational ABM approach is a formal quantitative method which proved to be suitable for modelling complex flexible systems. In addition, from a legal point of view, formal systemic institutional modelling potentially provides an interesting contribution to accident and incident analysis. The current work compares three systemic modelling approaches: STAMP, ABM and institutional modelling applied to a case study in an aviation domain.

An Analytic Framework to Assess Organizational Resilience.

BackgroundResilience engineering is a paradigm for safety management that focuses on coping with complexity to achieve success, even considering several conflicting goals. Modern sociotechnical systems have to be resilient to comply with the variability of everyday activities, the tight-coupled and underspecified nature of work, and the nonlinear interactions among agents. At organizational level, resilience can be described as a combination of four cornerstones: monitoring, responding, learning, and anticipating.MethodsStarting from these four categories, this article aims at defining a semiquantitative analytic framework to measure organizational resilience in complex sociotechnical systems, combining the resilience analysis grid and the analytic hierarchy process.ResultsThis article presents an approach for defining resilience abilities of an organization, creating a structured domain-dependent framework to define a resilience profile at different levels of abstraction, and identifying weaknesses and strengths of the system and potential actions to increase system's adaptive capacity. An illustrative example in an anesthesia department clarifies the outcomes of the approach.ConclusionThe outcome of the resilience analysis grid, i.e., a weighed set of probing questions, can be used in different domains, as a support tool in a wider Safety-II oriented managerial action to bring safety management into the core business of the organization.

Analyzing task division, coordination and continuity of care: A comparative case study of four specialized Multiple Sclerosis hospitals [CORTEXS

Introduction: Many care organizations have pushed their functional silos to the background, establishing multidisciplinary organizational units to deliver care. Yet, the way these organizational units are designed might produce differences regarding continuity of care, a key performance criterion in chronic care. Consequently, one of the questions we tried to answer in Project CORTEXS is the following: what is the relation between how organizational units are shaped and continuity of care? Theory: Modern Sociotechnical Systems Theory is used to analyze task division and coordination throughout a care process. Task division involves how a composite task (i.e. care delivery) is divided into different tasks and how those tasks are grouped into organizational units: per function, phase or process. Coordination comprises the way task alignment between organizational units takes place, namely centralized (via supervisors or standardization) or decentralized (via direct communication). Continuity of care is conceptualized as the degree of personal follow-up that is provided throughout the care process: none, indirect or direct. Methods: Care process are studied in four specialized Multiple Sclerosis (MS) hospitals in Flanders (Belgium). MS is a highly variable disease, presenting different symptoms and disease courses per patient, which shows the need for continuity of care. The four studied specialized MS hospitals are expected to show variety in task division and coordination. Interviews with representatives of different care disciplines are conducted in each hospital (n=28). Data are investigated using qualitative data analysis techniques. Results: All four hospitals implemented multidisciplinary organizational units. The first hospital installed multidisciplinary departments per function (i.e. acute vs. chronic), but also split them up into work units per function (i.e. professional disciplines), aligning tasks through mixed coordination. No personal follow-up is offered throughout the care process. The second hospital created work units that deliver care throughout a particular phase (i.e. patient episodes) and aligns tasks through mixed coordination, but lacks personal follow-up between phases as well. The third hospital installed work units per phase (i.e. predefined care programs) with mainly centralized coordination. Personal follow-up between phases is missing. The fourth hospital implemented work units that provide care throughout the process (i.e. for a particular patient population), disregarding particular episodes or phases, with a mainly decentralized coordination. Direct personal follow-up is delivered. Conclusions: The urge for multidisciplinary care has been translated into different practices by the four hospitals, which can be related to different degrees of continuity of care.Given the highly individual nature of MS, dividing tasks between aspects and phases that are actually interrelated does not seem to benefit continuity of care. Contrary to the expectations, mixed coordination seems to constrain continuity of care. Lessons learned: Multidisciplinary organizational units can be shaped in various ways, resulting in different degrees of continuity of care. Limitations and future research directions: This study looks at intra-organizational care processes only, and does not take into account legal and financial preconditions. As a part of Project CORTEXS, the study is currently being extended to investigate inter-organizational care processes and the role of legal and financial preconditions.

ACCBench: A Framework for Comparing Causality Algorithms

Modern socio-technical systems are increasingly complex. A fundamental problem is that the borders of such systems are often not well-defined a-priori, which among other problems can lead to unwanted behavior during runtime. Ideally, unwanted behavior should be prevented. If this is not possible the system shall at least be able to help determine potential cause(s) a-posterori, identify responsible parties and make them accountable for their behavior. Recently, several algorithms addressing these concepts have been proposed. However, the applicability of the corresponding approaches, specifically their effectiveness and performance, is mostly unknown. Therefore, in this paper, we propose ACCBench, a benchmark tool that allows to compare and evaluate causality algorithms under a consistent setting. Furthermore, we contribute an implementation of the two causality algorithms by G\"o{\ss}ler and Metayer and G\"o{\ss}ler and Astefanoaei as well as of a policy compliance approach based on some concepts of Main et al. Lastly, we conduct a case study of an Intelligent Door Control System, which exposes concrete strengths and weaknesses of all algorithms under different aspects. In the course of this, we show that the effectiveness of the algorithms in terms of cause detection as well as their performance differ to some extent. In addition, our analysis reports on some qualitative aspects that should be considered when evaluating each algorithm. For example, the human effort needed to configure the algorithm and model the use case is analyzed.

The spreading of infectious diseases in modern socio-technical systems Comment on “Pattern transitions in spatial epidemics: Mechanisms and emergent properties” by Gui-Quan Sun et al.

The spreading of infectious diseases in modern socio-technical systems Comment on “Pattern transitions in spatial epidemics: Mechanisms and emergent properties” by Gui-Quan Sun et al.

Expanding Resilience Indicators: A Case Study on Buffering Capacity Indicator in a Process Plant

Background: The complexity of modern sociotechnical systems has created new challenges for safety, so that traditional approaches are not able to cope with them. Resilience engineering (RE) is a good alternative to traditional approaches for safety management, however resilience is still a difficult concept to measure, and indicators such as buffering capacity, flexibility, and so on, which are thought to contribute to it, are undeveloped. Objectives: This study aimed at expanding buffering capacity as one of the main indicators in order to facilitate measurement of resilience of a system. Materials and Methods: We used the Delphi method in order to identify indicators, and data related to all the indicators were gathered by observation and interview. In this line, 32 of the experienced operators with at least 15 years of operational record were selected for semi-structured interviews. Gathered data was processed by the principal component analysis technique. The results were processed by the Minitab 15 software. Results: In this study, 29 factors affecting this indicator were determined using the Delphi method; the scores of all factors were less than the scores of the best practice. On the other hand, the state of this indicator was poor in plant included in the study. Conclusions: This was the first study that focused on expanding resilience indicators, and presents a new framework to simplify assessment of resilience and safety of a complex system.

Assessment of resilience engineering factors based on system properties in a process industry

The complexity of modern sociotechnical systems has resulted in new challenges in the safety areas, making traditional approaches no longer sufficient. Therefore, resilience engineering (RE) is a recognizable alternative to traditional approaches in safety management. Our literature review, however, showed that most studies have focused on a set of certain indicators for assessing RE, and other indicators have been left undeveloped. This study aims to represent a new view for assessing RE factors in a process industry using a wide range of indicators, i.e., buffering capacity, margin, tolerance, cross-scale interactions, learning culture, flexibility, anticipation, attention, and response. Related data were collected using semi-structured interviews with multiple-choice questions from 24 experienced operators and eight managers, analysis of documents, team work, as well as friendly and informal conversations. The data were analyzed based on the principal component analysis approach. The results led to determination of poor indicators and units in the industry. This is the first study in assessing RE factors using new indicators that demonstrate the nature of the risk and its complexity in the sociotechnical systems. It can, therefore, be employed as an appropriate method for assessing RE factors.