Modeling complex socio‐technical systems using the FRAM: A literature review

Abstract

This is a review paper of studies that have employed the functional resonance analysis method (FRAM). FRAM is a relatively new systemic method for modeling and analyzing complex socio-technical systems. This review aims to address the following research questions: (a) Why is FRAM used? (b) To what domains has FRAM been applied? (c) What are the appropriate data collection approaches in practice? (d) What are the deficiencies of FRAM? A review of 52 FRAM-related studies published between 2010 and 2020 revealed that FRAM-based models can be used as a basis for improving safety management, accident/incident investigation, hazard identification/risk management, and complexity management in complex socio-technical systems. The outcomes also showed that healthcare was the most common domain that employed FRAM (31% of the investigated studies). The results of exploring data collection methods indicated a mixed method (interview, focus group, observation) was employed in 52% of the analyzed studies, and the accident investigation report was the most popular approach in aviation-related studies. An investigation of the deficiencies of the FRAM showed that it should be upgraded by exploiting supplementary methods to enhance its analytical and computational capacity to help risk analysts and safety managers in complex socio-technical systems. K E Y W O R D S accident investigation, complex socio-technical systems, complexity management, functional resonance analysis method (FRAM), hazard identification, safety management 1 | INTRODUCTION 1.1 | Background Complex socio-technical systems consist of some subsystems and subactivities linked in known or unknown ways (Hollnagel, 2012a, 2012b). Examples of socio-technical systems include healthcare, aviation, manufacturing, power industry, and automotive (Soliman & Saurin, 2017). They are inherently complex, nonlinear, uncertain, and dynamic (Jensen & Aven, 2018). Complex relationships between humans and their environments, including technologies and organizations, show that safety is not a linear and straightforward process in such systems (Grant et al., 2018). In the Safety-I perspective, the focus is on reducing adverse outcomes, such as accidents, incidents, and near misses (Hollnagel, 2018). The core idea of the established techniques for analyzing risks and accidents in the Safety-I approach is based on event chains: unexpected outcomes and potential accidents cannot be anticipated by considering event chains or possible

A dynamic version of the FRAM for capturing variability in complex operations

“…The FRAM has been widely used for pursuing different purposes in various fields, such as healthcare, aviation, maritime, railway, environment, and process industries [ 7 , 8 ]. According to Ransolin et al.…”

Making resilience explicit in FRAM: Shedding light on desired outcomes

“…This study explores the use of the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) for investigating successful performance. FRAM has been the main tool for the modeling of socio‐technical systems in light of RE and has been used in a number of domains, such as healthcare, aviation, and maritime (Patriarca et al, 2020; Salehi et al, 2021). Benefits of using FRAM involve a better understanding of the gap between work‐as‐imagined (WAI) and work‐as‐done (WAD) as well as insights into how variability propagates in complex systems (Patriarca et al, 2020).…”

“…These changes were tested in the analysis of two events with desired outcomes in an adult clinical and surgical intensive care unit (ICU). Healthcare systems are usually highly complex, which makes them common targets to FRAM applications (Patriarca et al, 2020; Salehi et al, 2021).…”

“…These guidelines were also used for the assessment of resilient healthcare in surgical units by Mahmoud et al (2021), the preparation and administration of drugs in surgical wards by Saurin et al (2019), and in emergency departments (Righi & Saurin, 2015). Salehi et al (2021) used the guidelines as a framework for the analysis of the implications of the COVID‐19 pandemic for system‐safety theories.…”

An Improved FFIP Method Based on Mathematical Logic and SysML

“…In the past few years, some new safety analysis methods have emerged, for example, the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) and the Systems-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) method. FRAM [2] is a systematic analysis method, which can be used to model complex social-technology system. Although it is powerful for visualizing and understanding the functions of system, it does not do well in quantization.…”