**2. General overview on resilience engineering approach**

Resilience Engineering (RE) is a multidisciplinary field of study dealing with safety in complex systems that have several interdependent elements from an economic, human, and social point of view [6]. RE is the intrinsic ability of a system to modify its functioning before, during and following a change or disruption, in order to be able to continue the necessary operations both under foreseen and unforeseen conditions [7]. In general, safety is defined as a condition that minimizes the number of negative outcomes. Thus, it is possible to understand the functioning of a system by analyzing its parts. Therefore, in this view the aim is to reduce the number of accidents by reducing their causes. This is the so-called *Safety I*. In opposition to this vision was developed *Safety II*. This approach not only focuses on adverse events, but also analyzes everyday work situations in which things are going well [8]. In this perspective, safety is defined positively as an effective daily operating situation, rather than negatively as the absence of accidents. Unlike the classic risk analysis and risk management approaches that are based on the analysis of a posteriori causes by adopting a linear cause-and-effect approach, the RE adopts a perspective that refers to the *Theory of complexity* [9]. It aims to revise the analysis models to create processes that are flexible and robust Therefore, for the RE, risk management is not aimed at reducing sources of risk, but at strengthening the ability to reduce the variability of performance both in expected and unexpected conditions [10]. In this context, Functional Resonance is a characteristic of a complex system that explains how serious consequences can arise from small variations in the performance of its parts or the environmental conditions in which it operates [11]. The Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) is a recent method developed to explore how functional variability affects the overall system [12]. An investigation on the SCOPUS, one of the most accredited databases in the scientific community (Scopus is updated periodically and offers around 25,000 articles from more than 5000 international publishers), pointed out that 47 documents have been published from 2010 to 2020. The search query used

**3**

**Figure 2.**

*Documents by country.*

**Figure 1.** *Documents by year.*

*The Analytic Functional Resonance Analysis to Improve Safety Management*

on Scopus was (TITLE-ABS-KEY (resilience AND engineering) AND TITLE-ABS-KEY (functional AND resonance AND analysis AND method)). the survey result includes only articles in which the string was found in 1) title, or in 2) abstract or in 3) key words. As can be seen from **Figure 1** there is a growing interest in this topic. It is interesting to note that there are no publications on Scopus before 2010.

A country where there is greater scientific interest is Italy (27,6%), followed by Brazil (17%), as it is shown in **Figure 2**. The publications are mostly articles published in international journals (63,8%) and conference paper (31,9%).

Furthermore, the survey pointed out that most of the research is in the engineering

A recent study developed by Patriarca et al. [13] highlighted that aviation is by far the most investigated domain with the FRAM with a percentage equal to 24,87%. This is not a surprising result since FRAM was developed in the aeronautical field. Other emerging sectors are healthcare (13,99%) and industrial operations (12,44%) as demonstrated by several publications [14–16]. Furthermore, some authors pointed out that FRAM does not assess the human behavior and the human perfor-

Other publications demonstrated how FRAM is a qualitative approach for accident, risk and system analysis and it does not support quantification [19–21]. Definitely, FRAM is a qualitative method. Furthermore, it does not support quantification. To overcome this issue, FRAM is used together with the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Thus, it is possible to measure the subjectivity in establishing the potential variability of functions as suggested by Rosa et al. [22]. The integration of

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93998*

This means that it is a new and promising topic.

area (36,3%) as shown in **Figure 3**.

mance to analyze the human error [17, 18].

#### *The Analytic Functional Resonance Analysis to Improve Safety Management DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93998*

on Scopus was (TITLE-ABS-KEY (resilience AND engineering) AND TITLE-ABS-KEY (functional AND resonance AND analysis AND method)). the survey result includes only articles in which the string was found in 1) title, or in 2) abstract or in 3) key words. As can be seen from **Figure 1** there is a growing interest in this topic. It is interesting to note that there are no publications on Scopus before 2010. This means that it is a new and promising topic.

A country where there is greater scientific interest is Italy (27,6%), followed by Brazil (17%), as it is shown in **Figure 2**. The publications are mostly articles published in international journals (63,8%) and conference paper (31,9%). Furthermore, the survey pointed out that most of the research is in the engineering area (36,3%) as shown in **Figure 3**.

A recent study developed by Patriarca et al. [13] highlighted that aviation is by far the most investigated domain with the FRAM with a percentage equal to 24,87%. This is not a surprising result since FRAM was developed in the aeronautical field. Other emerging sectors are healthcare (13,99%) and industrial operations (12,44%) as demonstrated by several publications [14–16]. Furthermore, some authors pointed out that FRAM does not assess the human behavior and the human performance to analyze the human error [17, 18].

Other publications demonstrated how FRAM is a qualitative approach for accident, risk and system analysis and it does not support quantification [19–21]. Definitely, FRAM is a qualitative method. Furthermore, it does not support quantification. To overcome this issue, FRAM is used together with the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Thus, it is possible to measure the subjectivity in establishing the potential variability of functions as suggested by Rosa et al. [22]. The integration of

**Figure 1.** *Documents by year.*

*Operations Management - Emerging Trend in the Digital Era*

flexible and can be applied in different scenario.

proposed "model" and the future research are summarized.

**2. General overview on resilience engineering approach**

technical ones to overcome.

lead to its success or failure. However, this approach leads to a *qualitative result* aimed at highlighting how multiple variables combined can change the outcome of an action in a dynamic environment. The points in favor of this method and of resilience engineering are evident, but they still pose obstacles, sometimes even

Thus, in the present research the FRAM method is used in conjunction with Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to overcome the limits of the FRAM. AHP is a well-known multi-criteria decision support technique developed in the 1970s by the Prof. Thomas L. Saaty [5]. The proposed model overcomes the qualitative limits of the resilience engineering models proposed in the literature. The AHP helps to assess the subjective probability of an event or trigger cause. Furthermore, through the integration of the AHP it allows to evaluate the strength of relationship between the variability of human performance and influence of the external environment. The preset study is a pilot research. The proposed process will be tested in other situations and industrial settings. In fact, the model is extremely

The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents a general overview on resilience engineering approach and a brief state of art. Section 3 describes the proposed model based on FRAM and AHP. Section 4 describes a real case study in a petrochemical industry and its results. Finally, in Section 5 conclusion of the

Resilience Engineering (RE) is a multidisciplinary field of study dealing with safety in complex systems that have several interdependent elements from an economic, human, and social point of view [6]. RE is the intrinsic ability of a system to modify its functioning before, during and following a change or disruption, in order to be able to continue the necessary operations both under foreseen and unforeseen conditions [7]. In general, safety is defined as a condition that minimizes the number of negative outcomes. Thus, it is possible to understand the functioning of a system by analyzing its parts. Therefore, in this view the aim is to reduce the number of accidents by reducing their causes. This is the so-called *Safety I*. In opposition to this vision was developed *Safety II*. This approach not only focuses on adverse events, but also analyzes everyday work situations in which things are going well [8]. In this perspective, safety is defined positively as an effective daily operating situation, rather than negatively as the absence of accidents. Unlike the classic risk analysis and risk management approaches that are based on the analysis of a posteriori causes by adopting a linear cause-and-effect approach, the RE adopts a perspective that refers to the *Theory of complexity* [9]. It aims to revise the analysis models to create processes that are flexible and robust Therefore, for the RE, risk management is not aimed at reducing sources of risk, but at strengthening the ability to reduce the variability of performance both in expected and unexpected conditions [10]. In this context, Functional Resonance is a characteristic of a complex system that explains how serious consequences can arise from small variations in the performance of its parts or the environmental conditions in which it operates [11]. The Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) is a recent method developed to explore how functional variability affects the overall system [12]. An investigation on the SCOPUS, one of the most accredited databases in the scientific community (Scopus is updated periodically and offers around 25,000 articles from more than 5000 international publishers), pointed out that 47 documents have been published from 2010 to 2020. The search query used

**2**

**Figure 2.** *Documents by country.*

#### *Operations Management - Emerging Trend in the Digital Era*

#### **Figure 3.**

*Documents by subject area.*

FRAM-AHP is proposed also in other two works. Both applied the hybrid to evaluate construction sustainability [23, 24].
