RE: Another tragic case of not reading the manual

["Robert Plamondon" <robert -at- plamondon -dot- com>]

Bonnie writes:

>The real culprit is, as usual, management.

>Management is entirely culpable and negligent because it did not hold
safety
>drills that made sure that each employee was aware of emergency procedures.

I agree that management is responsible (but I doubt safety drills represent
a full solution).

A lot of people don't think like management, and they take their work
environment for granted.  This leads them to blame the victim for being too
dumb, too clumsy, or too unlucky for the job.

In fact, management is responsible for providing the entire work
environment, its rules, and their enforcement.  Not only that, management is
responsible for selecting appropriate employees -- including managers -- who
are capable of doing their jobs properly.  Management is responsible for the
selection of machinery, of incoming materials, and for changing these when
they are not acceptable.

Of course, nothing is under perfect control.  Accidents can always happen.
They fall into the same category as product defects; they have an element of
randomness, but their incidence can be increased or decreased.  This is
management's responsibility.

If you read Deming's OUT OF THE CRISIS (great book), there are innumerable
examples, both good and bad, of this issue, though the main focus is on
product quality rather than safety.  The issues are practically the same,
though.

	-- Robert
--
Robert Plamondon
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