The Necessary Systems Approach

Historically, aerospace systems have become increasingly complex. No longer can one person possess total knowledge of any system. The inevitable response to this dilemma is to specialize. But specialists “learn more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing.” The global perspective (looking for every possible human error) so fundamental to the systematic control of behavioral failure thereby evaporates as everyone becomes increasingly narrow-minded. The answer is to reverse this trend and adopt a holistic discipline known as “the systems approach.” Human behavior may seem to defy systematic evaluation and control. But human error is best avoided when behavior is systematically recognized - womb-to-tomb - as an integral and critical aspect of an aerospace system.