A Hybrid Model for Designers to Learn from Failures: A Case of a High Potential Fire Incident at an Underground Hard Rock Mine

Abstract

Mining companies are increasingly being motivated to become High Reliability Organisations (HROs) in order to achieve better results in critical areas such as safety, environment management, and loss avoidance despite their complex environments. High Reliability Organisations are recognised by their abilities to effectively anticipate failures and disasters, including use of lessons learnt from previous failures. This paper seeks to demonstrate how designers for systems in the mining industry can learn from failures to anticipate failures and effectively manage them. It also demonstrates the applicability of a hybrid model which incorporates and integrates Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), Reliability Block Diagram (RBD) analysis, Risk Priority Number (RPN) concepts, and Analytical Hierarchy Processes (AHPs) in a case study for a High Potential Incident (HPI) at an underground hard rock mine. It shows how valuable lessons can be extracted and how these lessons can be used in decision making to prevent and manage future failures. The main contribution of this work is the demonstration of incorporating HRO principles with a hybrid modelling framework for learning from failures.