Human Factors in Simple and Complex Systems, 3rd Edition

3	Reliability and Human Error in Systems

One afternoon in the early 1970s, I was boiling a kettle for tea. The teapot … was waiting open-topped on the kitchen surface. At that moment, the cat – a very noisy Burmese – turned up at the nearby kitchen door, howling to be fed …. I opened a tin of cat food, dug in a spoon and dolloped a large spoonful of cat food into the teapot.

James Reason2013

INTRODUCTION

We all make slips and mistakes like that made by Prof. Reason, an expert in the area of human error. Sometimes these have humorous outcomes and sometimes more serious consequences, as described in the subtitle of his book, From Little Slips to Big Disasters. For example, while driving, it is easy to get distracted. You might be talking ...