US Navy Underwater Construction Team Operations: Knowing the Risks

Abstract

Human and Organizational Factors account for eighty percent (80%) of high consequence accidents in engineered systems (Bea 2001). To achieve high quality in the lifecycle of increasingly complex engineered systems, it is imperative that we assess and manage the risks attributed to human and organizational factors of the system. A key step in mitigating these risks is to capture and build on the knowledge gained from previous experience. To this end, a repository of Best Practices and Lessons Learned (BP/LL) that is stored for efficient future recall is proposed. By learning what has and has not worked in the past, project planners with little experience can more proactively manage the risk inherent in complex engineered systems and ultimately achieve higher quality.