INDUSTRY FOCUS
Do the holes line up ?
The
Swiss cheese model of risk management
Whatever your field , whether you are project managing a multibillion-rand development , overseeing the security on a small estate , getting the kids to school on time , or running a large hospital , you need to manage risk , minimise accidents , and ensure the smooth flow of a number of related tasks . We all have different ways of ensuring that this happens , but one brilliant model is as simple as a slice of cheese – or , more accurately , a lot of slices of cheese .
OF MICE AND CHEESE As Robbie Burns so poetically puts it : ‘ The best-laid plans of mice ( and humans ) go oft awry ’*, which could lead to disaster . And one of the best ways to ensure that they don ’ t is through the use of cheese . But not just any old cheese – it ’ s got to be a good Emmentaler , Maasdam or Jarlsberg . The reason that only these cheeses work is that they are what people in the USA refer to as Swiss cheese , and that ’ s the cheese that James Reason used as his analogy for the Swiss cheese model , also called the cumulative act effect .
SWISS CHEESE The original Swiss cheese is Emmentaler , crafted in the Valley of the Emme River ( Emmental ) in Switzerland , where it ’ s been made for nearly 1,000 years . At first , the cheesemakers were distressed at the big holes that formed in the cheese while it was fermenting and maturing , thinking they were defects , but they came to be regarded as a positive feature of what is undoubtedly one of the more delicious cheeses around . ( And that ’ s saying a lot , because there are hundreds , if not thousands , of delicious cheeses .) This style of cheese is made in many parts of the world – in the Netherlands , it ’ s called Maasdam ; in Norway , Jarlsberg ; and , in the USA , Swiss cheese , or just ‘ Swiss ’. But we digress . Swiss cheese is characterised by its distinctive holes , which is why Reason used it for his analogy .
THE SWISS CHEESE MODEL While analysing accidents and catastrophes , Reason – professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Manchester – realised that , for every big disaster , there were a number of small , cumulative causes –
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