Organizing Maintenance Work At Two American Nuclear Power Plants

Abstract

Organizational strategies used by operations and maintenance personnel at two US nuclear power plants are compared with those described by the Berkeley group in their extensive high reliability organization studies. Using the method of strategic analysis, we show that the two organizations use quite different strategies in their search for reliability and effectiveness. The focus on the coordination of workers and structuring of tasks reveals areas not completely dealt with in previous HRO-related studies. It is argued that adopting a complementary approach in which elements of both methods are selectively applied may lead to an analytic framework of greater theoretical and explanatory power.

Safety Management Systems as communication in an oil and gas producing company

“…It is also argued that this way of designing procedures as constraints on human action relies too much on an explanation of accidents as a linear combination of failures and malfunctions, and that procedures should rather be seen as resources to facilitate individual decision making Schuman, 1987). Less extensive and less rigid rules and procedures leave more space for the operator to decide exactly how a specific task should be performed (Bourrier, 1996;Howard-Grenville, 2005 Rules and procedures can function as facilitators helping people to structure activities during daily work routine and to make a professional evaluation about how to adapt the procedures to the immediate situation. However, some procedures must be rigid, for instance procedures for tasks that are performed rarely, or are complex, require coordination between several units of the organisation .…”

Erros humanos em situações de urgência: análise cognitiva do comportamento dos pilotos na catástrofe do voo Air France 447

“…This is what Bergson called "Illusion Background" or "Retrograde True Motion", ie the construction of a diagnosis by the researchers in which is believed to be true a past event using this data (Bergson, 1934). This retrospective illusion, typical of the official examination continues resisting criticism from several authors in accidents (Reason, 1990;Bourrier, 1996;Vaughan, 1996;Llory, 1999;Collins & Pinch, 2010;Amalberti, 2013).…”

Entre arrangements et empêchements dans le nucléaire

“…Cet univers professionnel s'apparente à un cas extrême, cumulant de multiples propriétés qui paraissent constituer autant d'épreuves à la réalisation et à la coordination des activités de travail : processus de production continu et jalonné de nombreux événements, complexité sociotechnique (Perrow, 1999), exigences de sûreté et impératifs d'efficacité (Vaughan, 1996). Le monde du nucléaire a principalement été étudié à travers ses activités nobles, soit la production, ou conduite (Journé, 1999), et la maintenance (Schulman, 1993 ;Bourrier, 1996 ;Globokar, 2004). Dans la vie très normée et pourtant hors normes de ces usines, les arrêts pour maintenance ont été particulièrement étudiés (op.…”

“…Soumis à de nombreux aléas et combinant des enjeux techniques, économiques et de sûreté, ils représentent un des plus grands défis des industries nucléaires. La performance de ces arrêts repose en grande partie sur l'articulation des activités, en particulier de production et de maintenance (Bourrier, 1996), et sur une planification serrée des tâches pensant les interdépendances et incompatibilités entre métiers (Bourrier, 1996 ;Globokar, 2004). Pourtant, la planification a été peu étudiée comme une activité et un groupe professionnel à part entière, avec ses acteurs, ses lieux et ses objets propres.…”