TITLE:
Resilience Engineering for Sustainable Prevention in the Manufacturing Sector: A Comparative Study of Two Methods of Risk Analysis
AUTHORS:
Annick Melanson, Sylvie Nadeau
KEYWORDS:
Resilience Engineering, Functional Resonance Analysis Method, Risk Assessment, Manufacturing Environment
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Industrial and Business Management,
Vol.9 No.1,
January
24,
2019
ABSTRACT: Manufacturing
businesses today have become complex sociotechnical systems. They must manage a
variety of risks, including those related to occupational health and safety and
emergent ones. In this article, we examine the possibility of using resilience
engineering to provide a framework for the management of OHS and emergent risks
in manufacturing businesses. More specifically, we compare failure mode effect
and criticality analysis (FMECA) to functional resonance analysis method
(FRAM), the former being an established risk analysis method in the
manufacturing sector and the latter being a relatively novel method used
primarily in high-risk sectors such as air transportation, hospitals and railways.
These two methods differ in several respects, but comparison reveals their
relative advantages as well as their complementarity. Our principal finding
confirms the advantages of the functional resonance analysis method in risk
management for complex systems. Although failure mode effect and criticality
analysis is more effective for understanding technical risks, functional
resonance analysis method provides better understanding of the system as a
whole and allows more efficient management of organizational risks as well as
risks associated with the variability of human performance.