Search results

High-reliability performance and high-hazard are intertwined in High-Reliability Organizations (HROs) operations; these organizations are highly safe, highly hazardous and highly significant for the modern society, not only for the valuable resources they have, but also the indispensable services they provide. This research intend to understand how HROs could produce high quality performance despite their challenging and demanding contexts. The research followed an emic approach to develop an organizational framework that reflects the contribution of the seeming traits of the organizations to the operations safety based on the workers point of views about the safety of workstations.

This research adopted mixed methods of in-depth interviews and literature review to identify the structural characteristics of high-reliability organizations (HROs) embedded in the organizations studies and developed a theoretical based structural framework for HROs. Furthermore, a systemic literature review was adopted to find the evidence from the organizations literature for the identified characteristics from the interviews from the first stage. The setting for this study is six Chinese power stations, four stations in Hubei province central China and two stations in the southern China Guangdong province.

The organizational framework is a key determinant to achieve high-reliability performance; however, solely it cannot explain how HROs manage the risks of hazard events and operate safely in high-hazard environments. High-reliability performance is attributed to the interaction between two sets of determinants of safety and hazard. The findings of this research indicate that HROs systems would be described as reliable or hazardous depending on the tightly coupled setting, complexity, bureaucracy involvement and dynamicity within the systems from one hand, and safety orientation, failure intolerance, systemwide processing, the institutional setting and the employment of redundant systems on other hand.

The authors developed an organizational framework of organizing the safety work in HROs. The applied method of interviewing and literature review was not adopted in any other researches.

System reliability optimisation in today’s world is critical to ensuring customer satisfaction, businesses competitiveness, secure and uninterrupted delivery of services and safety of operations. Among many systems configurations, complex systems are the most difficult to model for reliability optimisation. The purpose of this paper is to assess the performance of a novel optimisation methodology of the authors, developed to address the difficulties in the context of a gas carrying system (GCS) exhibiting dual failure modes and high initial reliability.

The minimum cut sets involving components of the system were obtained using the fault tree approach, and their reliability constituted into criteria which were maximised and the associated cost of improving their reliabilities minimised. Pareto optimal generic components and system reliabilities were subsequently obtained.

The results indicate that the optimisation methodology could improve the system’s reliability even from an initially high one, granted that the feasibility factor for improving a component’s reliability was very high. The results obtained, in spite of the size (41 objective functions and 18 decision variables), the complexity (dual failure modes) and the high initial reliability values provide confidence in the optimisation model and methodology and demonstrate their applicability to systems exhibiting multiple failure modes.

The GCS was assumed either failed or operational, its parameters precisely determined, and non-repairable. The components failure rates were exponentially distributed and failure modes independent. A single weight vector representing expression of preference in which components reliabilities were weighted higher than cost was used due to the stability of the optimisation model to weight variations.

The high initial reliability values imply that reliability improvement interventions may not be a critical requirement for the GCS. The high levels could be sustained through planned and systematic inspection and maintenance activities. Even so, purely from an analytical stand point, the results nevertheless show that there was some room for reliability improvement however marginal that is. The improvement may be secured by: use of components with comparable levels of reliability to those achieved; use of redundancy techniques to achieve the desired levels of improvement in reliability; or redesigning of the components.

The novelty of this work is in the use of a reliability optimisation model and methodology that focuses on a system’s minimum cut sets as criteria to be optimised in order to optimise the system’s reliability, and the specific application to a complex system exhibiting dual failure modes and high component reliabilities.

Addresses the standardization of the measurements and the labels for concepts commonly used in the study of work organizations. As a reference handbook and research tool, seeks to improve measurement in the study of work organizations and to facilitate the teaching of introductory courses in this subject. Focuses solely on work organizations, that is, social systems in which members work for money. Defines measurement and distinguishes four levels: nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio. Selects specific measures on the basis of quality, diversity, simplicity and availability and evaluates each measure for its validity and reliability. Employs a set of 38 concepts ‐ ranging from “absenteeism” to “turnover” as the handbook’s frame of reference. Concludes by reviewing organizational measurement over the past 30 years and recommending future measurement reseach.

Companies face the critical reliability problem of products due to the development of outsourcing. This study intends to provide some feasible solutions for a company to improve the reliability level of products.

The paper considers the reward and reliability decisions regarding a product made with two complementary components from two different suppliers: high-capable and low-capable. Two kinds of reliability improvement incentives (normal incentive and cost-sharing incentive) through which a manufacturer provides a reward and shares the reliability improvement cost with a supplier are discussed. As the Stackelberg leader, the manufacturer determines the strategy, while the suppliers are responsible for determining its reliability. Using a game-theoretic framework, four different contract scenarios are addressed. We develop analytical methods to better understand how the manufacturer decides the incentive mechanism to be used for the suppliers.

The results show that cost-sharing contracts do not always lead to a higher reliability level and more enormous profits. Setting a target reliability level is better for the manufacturer. The cost-sharing contract is beneficial for a high-capable supplier even though it does not directly participate in that kind of mechanism. A low-capable supplier gains more profit when the manufacturer provides incentive mechanisms that do not specify a target reliability level.

This paper investigates the reliability improvement mechanism used for complementary products and focuses on identifying the optimal decisions when demand is influenced by the gap between the product's failure rate and the standard failure rate.

To provide valuable information for scholars to grasp the current situations, hotspots and future development trends of reliability analysis area.

In this paper, recent researches on efficient reliability analysis and applications in complex engineering structures like aeroengine rotor systems are reviewd.

The recent reliability analysis advances of engineering application in aeroengine rotor system are highlighted, it is worth pointing out that the surrogate model methods hold great efficiency and accuracy advantages in the complex reliability analysis of aeroengine rotor system, since its strong computing power can effectively reduce the analysis time consumption and accelerate the development procedures of aeroengine. Moreover, considering the multi-objective, multi-disciplinary, high-dimensionality and time-varying problems are the common problems in various complex engineering fields, the surrogate model methods and its developed methods also have broad application prospects in the future.

For the strong demand for efficient reliability design technique, this review paper may help to highlights the benefits of reliability analysis methods not only in academia but also in practical engineering application like aeroengine rotor system.

Given the pace of industry change and the rapid diffusion of high reliability organization (HRO) approaches, lags and divergences have arisen between research and practice in healthcare. The purpose of this paper is to explore several of these theory-practice gaps and propose implications for research and practice.

Classic and cutting-edge HRO literature is applied to analyze two industry trends: delivery system integration, and the confluence of patient-as-consumer and patient-centered care.

Highly reliable integrated delivery systems will likely function very differently from classic HRO organizations. Both practitioners and researchers should address conditions such as how a system is bounded, how reliable the system should be and how interdependencies are handled. Additionally, systems should evaluate the added uncertainty and variability introduced by enhanced agency on the part of patients/families in decision making and in processes of care.

Dramatic changes in the sociotechnical environment are influencing the coupling and interactivity of system elements in healthcare. Researchers must address the maintenance of reliability across organizations and the migration of decision-making power toward patients and families.

As healthcare systems integrate, managers attempting to apply HRO principles must recognize how these systems present new and different reliability-related challenges and opportunities.

This paper provides a starting point for the advancement of research and practice in high-reliability healthcare by providing an in-depth exploration of the implications of two major industry trends.

The purpose of this paper is to complicate and critique contemporary scholarship on high-reliability organizations (HROs). This paper argues that although HRO scholarship helps to identify communicative patterns that facilitate reliability and safety, it also simplifies processes that undermine the effectiveness of existing recommendations for HROs.

This paper frames high-reliability organizing as the enactment of mindfulness, which is the theoretical mechanism behind each of the five principles of high-reliability organizing. Using this framework, this paper then elaborates on each of the HRO principles: preoccupation with failure, reluctance to simplify interpretations, sensitivity to operations, commitment to resilience, and deference to expertise.

This paper details how research guided by HRO theory must address the following obstacles to safety and resilience: information accessibility limiting preoccupation with failure, identity constructions encouraging the simplification of interpretations, message fatigue repressing sensitivity to operations, the information environment within HROs weakening commitment to resilience, and generational differences impeding deference to expertise.

This paper highlights key issues obstructing safety and reliability in organizations that have been largely ignored by extant literature and encourages scholars to do more to acknowledge the role communication plays in constituting and reconstituting organizational reliability. Failing to fully address complex communicative interactions in HROs obstructs efforts to safeguard employee health and safety.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic method to perform long‐term reliability assessment of gold (Au) and copper (Cu) ball bonds in fineline ball grid array package. Also with the aim to study the apparent activation energies (E_aa) and its associated wearout mechanisms of both Au and Cu wire in semiconductor device packaging. This paper discusses the influence of wire type on the long‐term reliability and mechanical performance after several component reliability stress tests.

A fineline ball grid array (FBGA) package with Cu and Au wire bonds was assembled with green molding compound and substrate. Samples are subjected for long‐term high temperature storage bake test at elevated temperatures of 150°C, 175°C and 200°C. Long‐term reliability plots (lognormal plots) are established and E_aa of both ball bonds are determined from Arrhenius plots. Detailed failure analysis has been conducted on failed sample and HTSL failure mechanisms have been proposed.

Reliability results show Au ball bond in FBGA package is observed with higher hour‐to‐failure compared to Cu ball bonds. The E_aa value of high temperature storage life (HTSL) reliability for Au ball bond is lower than Cu ball bond. Typical HTSL failure mechanism of Au ball bond is induced by micro‐voiding and AuAl intermetallic compound (IMC) micro‐cracks while CuAl IMC micro‐cracking (induced by Cl⁻ corrosion attack and micro‐cracking) caused wearout opens in Cu ball bond. These test results affirm the test‐to‐failure data collected is a useful method for lifetime prediction and E_aa calculation.

The paper reveals higher reliability performance of Cu ball bond in FBGA flash memory package which can be deployed in flash memory FBGA packaging with optimised package bill of materials.

The test‐to‐failure methodology is a useful technique for wearout reliability prediction and E_aa calculation.

Long-term care (LTC) organizations have struggled to protect their vulnerable clients from the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although various suggestions on containing outbreaks in LTC facilities have gained prominence, ensuring the safety of residents is not just a crisis issue. In that context, the authors must reasses the traditional management practices that were not sufficient for handling unexpected and demanding conditions. The purpose of this paper is to suggest rethinking the underlying attributes of LTC organizations and drawing insight from the parallels they have to high-reliability organizations (HROs).

The authors analyzed qualitative data collected from a Canadian LTC facility to shed light on the current state of reliability practices and culture of the LTC industry and to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the traditional management approaches.

To help the LTC industry develop the necessary crisis management capacity to tackle unexpected future challenges, there is an urgent need for adopting a more systemic top-down approach that cultivates mindfulness, learning and resilience.

This study contributes by applying the HRO theoretical lens in the LTC context. The study provides the LTC leaders with insights into creating a unified effort at the industry level to give rise to a high-reliability-oriented industry.

The adaptation perspective dominates the issue of organizational change and assumes that organizational inertia increases organizational mortality. This assumption is inadequate to analyze organizational change in risky activities. The purpose of this paper is to underline the relevance of organizational inertia when organizations face risky environments.

A conceptual framework was built that combines the adaptation and selection perspectives from the evolutionary approach and the high‐reliability organizations literature and apply it to space activities.

First, it was found that to prevent catastrophic failures, space organizations reproduce routines validated in previous successful programs, which leads to situations of organizational inertia; and second, the opposing perspectives of selection and adaptation become complementary when the author focus on the level of risk faced by organizations.

This paper focuses on space organizations and not more general types of organizations. However, the findings could be generalized to organizations manufacturing complex products and systems.

The originality of the paper is based on the new empirical and theoretical frameworks provided to analyze organizational inertia. Organizational inertia may be a satisfying response to environments favoring organizations with high levels of reliability. This new way of viewing inertia would be of value to scholars studying organizations in which errors can have catastrophic consequences.