FRAM: The Functional Resonance Analysis Method: Modelling Complex Socio-technical Systems
Resilience engineering has consistently argued that safety is more than the absence of failures. Since the first book was published in 2006, several book chapters and papers have demonstrated the advantage in going behind 'human error' and beyond the failure concept, just as a number of serious accidents have accentuated the need for it. But there has not yet been a comprehensive method for doing so; the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) fulfils that need. Whereas commonly used methods explain events by interpreting them in terms of an already existing model, the FRAM is used to model the functions that are needed for everyday performance to succeed. This model can then be used to explain specific events, by showing how functions can be coupled and how the variability of everyday performance sometimes may lead to unexpected and out-of-scale outcomes - either good or bad. The FRAM is based on four principles: equivalence of failures and successes, approximate adjustments, emergence, and functional resonance. As the FRAM is a method rather than a model, it makes no assumptions about how the system under investigation is structured or organised, nor about possible causes and cause-effect relations. Instead of looking for failures and malfunctions, the FRAM explains outcomes in terms of how functions become coupled and how everyday performance variability may resonate. This book presents a detailed and tested method that can be used to model how complex and dynamic socio-technical systems work, to understand why things sometimes go wrong but also why they normally succeed.
"1118936469"
FRAM: The Functional Resonance Analysis Method: Modelling Complex Socio-technical Systems
Resilience engineering has consistently argued that safety is more than the absence of failures. Since the first book was published in 2006, several book chapters and papers have demonstrated the advantage in going behind 'human error' and beyond the failure concept, just as a number of serious accidents have accentuated the need for it. But there has not yet been a comprehensive method for doing so; the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) fulfils that need. Whereas commonly used methods explain events by interpreting them in terms of an already existing model, the FRAM is used to model the functions that are needed for everyday performance to succeed. This model can then be used to explain specific events, by showing how functions can be coupled and how the variability of everyday performance sometimes may lead to unexpected and out-of-scale outcomes - either good or bad. The FRAM is based on four principles: equivalence of failures and successes, approximate adjustments, emergence, and functional resonance. As the FRAM is a method rather than a model, it makes no assumptions about how the system under investigation is structured or organised, nor about possible causes and cause-effect relations. Instead of looking for failures and malfunctions, the FRAM explains outcomes in terms of how functions become coupled and how everyday performance variability may resonate. This book presents a detailed and tested method that can be used to model how complex and dynamic socio-technical systems work, to understand why things sometimes go wrong but also why they normally succeed.
63.99 In Stock
FRAM: The Functional Resonance Analysis Method: Modelling Complex Socio-technical Systems

FRAM: The Functional Resonance Analysis Method: Modelling Complex Socio-technical Systems

by Erik Hollnagel
FRAM: The Functional Resonance Analysis Method: Modelling Complex Socio-technical Systems

FRAM: The Functional Resonance Analysis Method: Modelling Complex Socio-technical Systems

by Erik Hollnagel

Paperback(1)

$63.99 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Qualifies for Free Shipping
  • PICK UP IN STORE
    Check Availability at Nearby Stores

Related collections and offers


Overview

Resilience engineering has consistently argued that safety is more than the absence of failures. Since the first book was published in 2006, several book chapters and papers have demonstrated the advantage in going behind 'human error' and beyond the failure concept, just as a number of serious accidents have accentuated the need for it. But there has not yet been a comprehensive method for doing so; the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) fulfils that need. Whereas commonly used methods explain events by interpreting them in terms of an already existing model, the FRAM is used to model the functions that are needed for everyday performance to succeed. This model can then be used to explain specific events, by showing how functions can be coupled and how the variability of everyday performance sometimes may lead to unexpected and out-of-scale outcomes - either good or bad. The FRAM is based on four principles: equivalence of failures and successes, approximate adjustments, emergence, and functional resonance. As the FRAM is a method rather than a model, it makes no assumptions about how the system under investigation is structured or organised, nor about possible causes and cause-effect relations. Instead of looking for failures and malfunctions, the FRAM explains outcomes in terms of how functions become coupled and how everyday performance variability may resonate. This book presents a detailed and tested method that can be used to model how complex and dynamic socio-technical systems work, to understand why things sometimes go wrong but also why they normally succeed.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781409445517
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Publication date: 05/28/2012
Edition description: 1
Pages: 160
Product dimensions: 6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Erik Hollnagel (Ph.D., psychology) is Professor at the Department of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Industrial Safety Chair at MINES Paris-Tech (France), Professor Emeritus at University of Linköping (Sweden), and Visiting Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study of the Technische Universität München (Germany). Since 1971 he has worked within universities, research centres and industries in several countries facing problems from several domains, including nuclear power generation, aerospace and aviation, air traffic management, software engineering, healthcare, and land-based traffic. His professional interests include industrial safety, resilience engineering, accident investigation, cognitive systems engineering and cognitive ergonomics. He has published more than 250 papers and authored or edited 18 books, some of the most recent titles being The ETTO Principle (Ashgate, 2009) and Resilience Engineering in Practice (Ashgate, 2011). Erik Hollnagel is also Editor-in-Chief of the book series Ashgate Studies in Resilience Engineering.

Table of Contents

List of Figures vii

List of Tables ix

Prologue xi

1 The Need 1

A State of (Relative) Ignorance 1

Ignorance, Complexity and Intractability 3

Systems Redefined 6

From Probability to Variability 7

Conclusions 9

Comments on Chapter 1 9

2 The Intellectual Background 11

The Naturalness of Linear Thinking 11

Simple Linear Thinking 12

Complex Linear Thinking 13

Dynamic Systems and Parallel Developments 14

The Second Cybernetics 16

Conclusions 18

Comments on Chapter 2 19

3 The Principles 21

The Equivalence of Failures and Successes 22

The Approximate Adjustments 23

Emergence 25

Resonance 27

Conclusions 31

Comments on Chapter 3 31

4 The Method: Preliminaries 33

Looking For What Should Go Right 33

Step 0: Recognise the Purpose of the FRAM Analysis 36

Comments on Chapter 4 38

5 The Method: Identify and Describe the Functions (Step 1) 39

How Can the Functions Be Identified? 40

The Six Aspects 46

Issues in the Description of Functions 53

Comments on Chapter 5 60

6 The Method: The Identification of Variability (Step 2) 63

Variability of Different Types of Functions 65

Manifestations (Phenotypes) of Performance Variability 69

7 The Method: The Aggregation of Variability (Step 3) 77

Functional Upstream-Downstream Coupling 77

Upstream-Downstream Coupling for Preconditions 78

Upstream-Downstream Coupling for Resources or Execution Conditions 79

Upstream-Downstream Coupling for Control 80

Upstream-Downstream Coupling for Time 82

Upstream-Downstream Coupling for Input 83

Issues in Upstream-Downstream Coupling 84

Comments on Chapter 7 85

8 The Method: Consequences of the Analysis (Step 4) 87

Elimination, Prevention, Protection and Facilitation 89

Monitoring (Performance Indicators) 90

Dampening 91

What About Quantification? 93

Comments on Chapter 8 94

9 Three Cases 95

'Duk i buk' (The Sponge in the Abdomen) 95

Herald of Free Enterprise Car Ferry Disaster 108

A Financial System 117

Comments on the Cases 124

Comments on Chapter 9 125

10 Afterthoughts 127

The FRAM: A Method But Not a Model 127

Methods That Rely on Strong Models 128

Articulated Model or Articulated Method? 130

Scale Invariance 133

Comments on Chapter 10 134

11 FRAM on FRAM 135

Index 139

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews