We've all done it. Put the bread away in the refrigerator when we have always put it in the bread box. Or accidentally poured cream into the teapot instead of the teacup. You know, put the wrong thing in the wrong place when there is absolutely no reason for such an error.

Believe it or not, someone has written a book about human errors titled The Blame Machine. Actually, it's been sitting outside my office for some time now, and I happened to pick it up (without really knowing why but definitely on purpose, so it wasn't an error).

As it turns out, the book is about companies that focus on the role of people rather than systems in errors. "Organizations, and sometimes whole industries, become unwilling to look too closely at the system faults which caused the error. Instead the attention is focused on the individual who made the error and blame is brought into the equation."

We've all seen it happen. The problem, says the author, is that "many managers surrender to the apparent inevitability of errors and revert to the easier and simpler remedy of allocating (personal) blame."

At some companies, this has developed into a culture of blame. The book says these companies tend to be secretive, lack openness, and often sweep errors under the carpet. Other characteristics include lack of recognition of the importance of people and an atmosphere of fear. In fact, "the factors which characterize a blame culture may in themselves increase the probability of errors being made."

Now there's an uplifting conclusion. Sounds like all of this feeds on itself. Fortunately, the book goes one step further and offers a way out of the blame culture. And that is to conduct a thorough investigation into the systemic causes of error as well as consider the role of the individual.

Hope you find this as fascinating as I do. It's a topic I never gave much thought but can see applications in the world of materials handling.

For instance, did that order ship with errors because someone was careless in picking or because there's a problem with the system? Or, did that pallet load sit in receiving for two days because someone or the system overlooked it? And out on the assembly line, is production running behind schedule because people are slow or the right parts aren't there?

You get my drift. Better yet, I'm sure you can think of many more applications yourself. And if you take a look at this month's Warehouse of the Month and Manufacturing Spotlight , you'll see how some are doing what they can to minimize errors by improving system effectiveness.