Engineering a Safer World
Engineering Systems
Editorial Board:
Joel Moses (Chair), Richard de Neufville, Manuel Heitor, Granger Morgan, Elisabeth
Paté-Cornell, William Rouse
Flexibility in Engineering Design, by Richard de Neufville and Stefan Scholtes, 2011
Engineering a Safer World, by Nancy G. Leveson, 2011
Engineering Systems, by Olivier L. de Weck, Daniel Roos, and Christopher L. Magee,
2011
ENGINEERING A SAFER WORLD
Systems Thinking Applied to Safety
Nancy G. Leveson
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2011 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical
means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in
writing from the publisher.
For information about special quantity discounts, please email special_sales@mitpress.mit.edu
This book was set in Syntax and Times Roman by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited. Printed and bound
in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Leveson, Nancy.
Engineering a safer world : systems thinking applied to safety / Nancy G. Leveson.
p. cm.—(Engineering systems)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-262-01662-9 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Industrial safety. 2. System safety. I. Title.
T55.L466 2012
620.8′6—dc23
2011014046
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1