Cost-effectiveness analysis of system safety

Abstract

The Department of Defense (DOD) Instruction 5000.36 , "System Safety Engineering and Management," directs the Department of the Navy to establish formalized system safety programs throughout the procurement and life cycle of all systems, subsystems and equipment, and modifications there­ to, acquired by DOD. Ideally, the application of system safety engineering and management techniques improves the mission net cost-effectiveness of any DOD weapon system by the prevention of accidental deaths and injuries, and by minimizing material losses and damage to operational systems. Even though DOD has directed significant attention to the incorporation of system safety in current and future weapon systems, the system safety program has been criticized for its poor marginal contribution. In the past, Naval system safety programs have struggled for survival and recognition. With this in mind, the scope of this thesis is to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of system safety.