Issue 5: Creeping changes
Creeping changes are the accumulation of minor changes which often are ignored or accepted as the new norm, but which over time can add up to a big change and ultimately lead to a major incident. Most incidents result from a migration toward states of higher risk (Leveson, N). The well-known phenomenon, “normalization of deviance” fits into with this category too, with accepting deviations from the norm. The theory behind creeping changes is that that no industrial sites are static, there are changes made to the original design or there are changes due to ageing and degradation of equipment over time, together with organizational changes that can affect plant integrity.
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