This article was written By: Michael Farber, Senior Advisor to the Director of BSEE and I am posting it here as there is no means to “share” this great piece via social media.
General Motors (GM) recently released the findings of its internal investigation into the various failures that led to 12 fatalities and many injuries resulting from collisions caused by faulty ignitions switches in a number of its models. The company found that the ignition switches failed to keep the cars powered in certain circumstances, but they initially did not understand that this failure would prevent airbags from deploying. The internal investigation determined that there were at least 54 frontal-impact collisions in which airbags did not deploy as a result of the faulty ignition switches. GM used the faulty switches for 11 years without issuing any type of recall.
GM’s experience provides a window into how companies of any size and sophistication can lapse into systemic problems that can result in tragic consequences. Lessons learned from the GM experience can be applied to offshore oil and gas operations, as well as any other industry where lives are at stake every day. These lessons include:
