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What do applications of systems thinking accident analysis methods tell us about accident causation? A systematic review of applications between 1990 and 2018

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posted on 2019-06-28, 08:47 authored by Adam Hulme, Neville Stanton, Guy H. Walker, Patrick WatersonPatrick Waterson, Paul M. Salmon
© 2019 Introduction: This systematic review examines and reports on peer reviewed studies that have applied systems thinking accident analysis methods to better understand the cause of accidents in a diverse range of sociotechnical systems contexts. Methods: Four databases (PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus, Web of Science) were searched for published articles during the dates 01 January 1990 to 31 July 2018, inclusive, for original peer reviewed journal articles. Eligible studies applied AcciMap, the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS), the Systems Theoretic Accident Model and Processes (STAMP) method, including Causal Analysis based on STAMP (CAST), and the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM). Outcomes included accidents ranging from major events to minor incidents. Results: A total of 73 articles were included. There were 20, 43, six, and four studies in the AcciMap, HFACS, STAMP-CAST, and FRAM methods categories, respectively. The most common accident contexts were aviation, maritime, rail, public health, and mining. A greater number of contributory factors were found at the lower end of the sociotechnical systems analysed, including the equipment/technology, human/staff, and operating processes levels. A majority of studies used supplementary approaches to enhance the analytical capacity of base applications. Conclusions: Systems thinking accident analysis methods have been popular for close to two decades and have been applied in a diverse range of sociotechnical systems contexts. A number of research-based recommendations are proposed, including the need to upgrade incident reporting systems and further explore opportunities around the development of novel accident analysis approaches.

Funding

This work was supported by an Australian Research Council( ARC) Discovery Project grant (grant number:DP180100806)

History

School

  • Design

Published in

Safety Science

Volume

117

Pages

164 - 183

Citation

HULME, A. ... et al., 2019. What do applications of systems thinking accident analysis methods tell us about accident causation? A systematic review of applications between 1990 and 2018. Safety Science, 117, pp. 164 - 183.

Publisher

© Elsevier

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Safety Science and the definitive published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2019.04.016

Acceptance date

2019-04-14

Publication date

2019-04-20

Copyright date

2019

ISSN

0925-7535

eISSN

1879-1042

Language

  • en

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