MORT was first developed in the USA to analyze the root causes and causal factors for incidents in the nuclear power and aviation industries, but it has now been applied in many industries. However, it seems to be a “lost art” these days!
MORT is a pre-populated tree based on a model of an organization’s [safety] management system, which effectively provides a detailed checklist for reviewing which parts of management and control systems were less than adequate when the focus event occurred.
The most significant advantage of using MORT is that it assumes that a failure occurs due to oversights or omissions in either management systems or the specific control factors that should have prevented the event from happening.
Ultimately, failures in either branch of the tree occur because something within the general management systems (information systems, design, planning, operational readiness, maintenance, or supervision) was inadequate. Each box below is developed into a detailed tree structure showing factors that might have been less than adequate.
The basic structure of the tree is shown below…
