Critical thinking : learning from mistakes and how to prevent them / Gerald J. Watson & Jesse Derouin.

In a hurry to get the task completed -- To meet a deadline -- Failure to consider all costs of operation -- Failure to consider all aspects of the project -- Failure to ask others for assistance.

"Mistakes occur for many reasons. This book takes a hands-on approach as to the reasons mistakes happen, analyzes actual mistakes that occurred over a span of thirty years committed by the author and his colleagues to develop a strategy to reduce them which occurred in industry, healthcare, and in government. Information concerning areas the author gained in graduate school and in outside consulting that could have been applied to further reduce mistakes if known at the time is presented for the benefit of the reader. The goals of this book are to propose error reduction strategies in human decision making and to educate the reader of subject areas that can further reduce the likelihood of making a mistake. The error reduction strategies will be accomplished by the presentation, categorization of causes and an analysis in the form of case studies to enable the decision maker to imagine himself in the shoes of the author to experience the mistake first hand as did the author. This process may serve to insure that the decision-maker never repeat that mistake or a similar one. These actual examples include most processes of manufacturing, from the receipt of materials to the packaging and delivery of the product, and based on the actual experience of the author, the same mistake reduction strategies can be successfully applied to reduce medication errors and nosocomial infections in healthcare. This book further describes various cost-effective strategies for eliminating costly errors and the importance to think critically through all potential projects. Included in the definition of mistakes are the failure to consider all project costs as well cost of improper design and packaging and the failure to consider the user population when designing new products The second goal will be achieved by the discussion of topics as Anthropometry, Crew Resource Management, Human Factors, Industrial Engineering, Scientific Management, and Usability and the role these topics can have in the avoidance of mistakes. This book will be of interest to professionals and students in the areas of industrial engineering, human factors, logistics, quality control, manufacturing, human resources and safety"-- Provided by publisher.

OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.