FLORIDA CHAPTER

SYSTEM SAFETY SOCIETY

SUBJECT: Meeting Minutes for 9 April 1997.

A joint meeting was held between the Florida Chapter of the System Safety Society and the Space Coast Chapter of the Human Factors Engineering Society (HFES) at the La Cita Country Club in Titusville, FL at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 9 April 1997. There were a total of 28 attendees representing both societies.

Program: Diagnostic Tool for Accident Investigations was presented by members of the Kennedy Space Center’s Human Factors Team.

The meeting started with introductions of the program speakers by Jim Hale, President, HFES. The presenters were Jack Jamba, CSP, Safety Specialist, Donna Blankmann-Alexander and Colleen Orr. The presentations consisted of three sections, Jack addressed the background, Donna explained the Diagnostic Model and Colleen discussed data collection and analysis. Questions were answered during and after the presentation. A brief discussion on the program follows:

Kennedy Space Center’s (KSC) Human Factors Team was established in 1993 due to a NASA committee recommendation that KSC and the Shuttle Processing Contractor establish continuous improvement teams to investigate root causes for incidents and problems attributable to human factors. The KSC Director then established the Human Factors Team to investigate incidents. The team continues in existence to investigate significant incidents. Membership consisted of a broad spectrum of people from the processing shops, shuttle engineering, reliability, industrial engineering, safety, quality and scheduling. Initial efforts were to support investigations by utilizing Dr. Swain’s performance shaping factors, from which a checklist was developed. In 1995 the team developed a model based off of the Ginnett Model to assist in the investigations and to aid in the development of a prediction model for incidents. The model provides for a more in-depth analysis of the causal factors beyond the traditional approach of focusing on the individual and the task. It guides an investigator to look at the “big picture” and analyze the often invisible processes of the organization, team, individual and the design. The data is collected, analyzed, and validated. Recommendations for correction are provided by the team. It was interesting to see how the model was based off of team effectiveness and where the breakdown was in this process that resulted in the mishap.

Announcements:

Faith Chandler, Activities Director, Space Coast Chapter, HFES - Thanked the Florida Chapter, SSS for attending the meeting. Next HFES meeting will be a Business/Planning Meeting on 8 May at the Melbourne Public Library followed by a panel discussion dinner meeting on 10 June. Panel speakers will be Faith Chandler - Ergonomics, Dr. Gilson - Safety, Dr. Koonce - Aviation, Dr. Singer - Virtual Reality and Jeanine Williamson - HCI.

Jack Dixon, member, FL Chapter, SSS - Discussed the Florida Chapter’s plans on hosting the 1999 International System Safety Conference (ISSC). Jack solicited session chairs and papers and highlighted that the night’s program would be an excellent topic for a paper and would be appropriate for presentation at the 1999 ISSC.

John Wolf, President, FL Chapter, SSS - Announced the FL Chapter, SSS’s next meeting on June 18 with a program on Laser Safety. Frank Zelesky, membership chair, FL Chapter, SSS will be one of the presenters. John handed out Awards Selection Criteria for the SSS awards and solicited nominations from chapter members. He also announced the chapter is accepting officer nominations for the 1997-1998 year for the offices of president-elect, treasurer and secretary and volunteers for appointment for membership chair and newsletter editor. Suspense for awards nomination packages to the National office is 15 May 1997.

Dr. Don Jones - Announced the Human Factors Power Generation Conference that will be in June 97.

Faith Chandler - Space Coast Chapter, HFES, is also accepting officer nominations. University of Central Florida will be providing an Ergonomics Workshop in June 97.

CLOSING:

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 8:45 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Connie Perry Past-President FL Chapter, SSS

SYSTEM SAFETY SOCIETY

Attendees for the 9 April 1997 meeting:

1) Connie Perry

2) Mike Kochmann

3) Mike Willoughby

4) Erik Hougland

5) Jack Dixon

6) Ronnie Goodin

7) Dr. Don Jones

8) Fred Wachsman

9) John Wolf

10) Mag MacIsaac - Graduate Student, Embry Riddle

11) Paul Novacek - Graduate Student, Embry Riddle

12) Kirsten Gnuz - Graduate Student, Embry Riddle

13) Helena Reidemar - Graduate Student, Embry Riddle

14) HFES had an additional 15 people in attendance for a total attendance count of 28.