Monday, July 4, 2011

ASRS,… (?)

by Rick Nason, PhD, CFA

Partner, RSD Solutions Inc.

www.RSDsolutions.com

info@RSDsolutions.com

 

 

Don’t you just love it when people throw around acronyms like “ASRS” and just assume you know what the heck they are talking about?  I don’t, but I wanted to get you riled up so you would read this post.  Hopefully my tactic worked.

 

ASRS stands for “Aviation Safety Reporting System”, and it is the system to report “near-misses” of aviation accidents.  Kim Vicente in his multiple award winning book “The Human Factor: Revolutionizing The Way We Live With Technology” (Vintage Canada, 2004), describes the ASRS and outlines the attributes of this database that make it so effective for airline risk management.

 

·         Reports are de-indentified so blame cannot be assigned and there can be no retribution.  This increases the likelihood of reports being submitted and being submitted accurately and completely. 

·         The reports are voluntary and confidential.  Anyone can file a report.

·         Reports are analyzed by experts who are generally retired pilots.  This means that the reports are analyzed by people who understand the context of flying, and the fact that they are retired means they can look at the issues objectively.

·         The goal is to “find out what’s to blame, not who’s to blame” (emphasis is Vicente’s). 

 

Does your company have an “ASRS”?  Should your company (or industry) have an ASRS?  Can you come up with a better acronym that will sound as mysterious as ASRS?

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