“The motives for conceiving modern systems engineering are to be found, at least in part, in past disasters. Arthur D. Hall III [1989] cites: the chemical plant leakage in Bhopal (1986); the explosion of the NASA Challenger space shuttle (1986) and the Apollo fire (1967); the sinking of the Titanic (1912); the nuclear explosion in Chernobyl (1986) and the disaster at Three Mile Island power plant (1979). He cites, too, the capture of markets by Japan from the U. S., the decline in US productivity and the failure of the US secondary school system. He identifies the millions of people dying of starvation every year while other nations stockpile surplus food, medical disasters such as heart disease, while governments subsidize grains used to produce high cholesterol meat, milk and eggs; and many more. One implication is clear: systems engineering faces challenges well beyond the sphere of engineering.”
Source: Advanced Systems Thinking, Engineering and Management (2003), p. 75-76
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Derek Hitchins 14
British systems engineer 1935Related quotes

2011, Address on the natural and nuclear energy disasters in Japan (March 2011)

“(8 hours after the Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster)”
Other sources
“The power grid's exposure risk is greater than that of power plants during natural disasters.”
Lee Chih-kung (2017) cited in " Taipower to improve electricity towers http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2017/08/04/2003675856" on Taipei Times, 4 August 2017
Source: The God of the Machine (1943), p. 62
Context: These are not sentimental considerations; they constitute the mechanism of production and therefore of power. Personal liberty is the pre-condition of the release of energy. Private property is the inductor which initiates the flow. Real money is the transmission line; and the payment of debts comprises half the circuit. An empire is merely a long circuit energy-system. The possibility of a short circuit, ensuing leakage and breakdown or explosion, occurs in the hook-up of political organization to the productive processes. This is not a figure of speech or analogy, but a specific physical description of what happens.
Source: "Configurations of marketing and sales: a taxonomy", 2008, p. 134
Source: A Long Search for Information (2004), p. 3.

Winning the Oil Endgame http://www.oilendgame.com/, p. 258

Barley 1986, Orlikowski 1992, DeSanctis and Poole 1994
Source: "Using technology and constituting structures", 2000, p. 404