Forbes reported on August 16, 2010 the risk in closely coupled system. If something happens to one area, it quickly ripples to other parts of the system producing unintended and sometimes catastrophic consequences. Afterward, failure was totally predictable. Failures of reasonably well-designed systems are never caused by a single factor. Often five and as many as 10 malfunctions must interact for a failure to occur. Invariably, human and management errors will constitute 70% or more of the malfunction factors. The facts slowly emerging around BP spill are once again confirming this statement of a combination of human and management error.
The New York Times reported on some of the causes of the BP oil spill. According to the Times, senior management of the drilling company knew they had systemic issues concerning safety and risk taking. The Times piece also said there had been previous problems with the ballast system that caused the rig to list on its side. Further, two of the automatic water tight doors had to be manually closed. Did this cause the rig to sink after the explosion? It is too early to jump to conclusions? It will take years and perhaps many lawsuits to sort out the real facts. A lack of hands-on experience for workers and managers has contributed to safety concerns.
