Enhancing vehicle safety management in training deployments : an application of system dynamics

Organization Sierra-Tango is employing a systematic and methodical safety framework to manage risks in all their operational and training activities. While this safety system has shown itself to be reasonably effective in curtailing the number of accidents within the organization, Organization Sierra-Tango is not resting on its laurels and is continuing efforts to refine and improve upon its safety management framework. One of the focus areas is that of enhancing vehicle safety management in training deployments.This thesis fulfills Organizations Sierra-Tango's need for systematic understanding and continuous learning to enhance vehicle safety management in training deployments. This is achieved by extending the preponderant focus on the events and symptoms of accidents, which mostly ascribe human error as the primary cause of accidents, towards a more holistic perspective of accidents by also examining the often complex and dynamic contribution of organizational policies and practices towards accidents. An extensive research process was undertaken where discussions and interviews were conducted with the organization's vehicle safety Subject Matter Experts so as to develop a better understanding of the context of vehicle accidents during training deployments. Additionally, a thorough review of Organization Sierra Tango's internal documents (accident reports, training policies, etc) and open literature on accidents and safety was performed. Two System Dynamics (SD) models were developed to synthesize the mental models from the research phase and to generate, through simulations and analysis, insights for enhancing the organization's vehicle safety framework and practices.

Department dc:contributor.department

System Design and Management Program.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Lim, Kelvin F. H. (Kelvin Fang Hui)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Stuart E. Madnick.

• System Design and Management Program.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/43118

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/43118