The objective of this literature review was to study about quality could mean the difference between excellence and disaster on a real life project. Therefore, the literature review discussed a space shuttle project the Challenger shuttle disaster. The first part of the literature review discussed the Vaughan’s (1996) analysis, which found the human errors are one of the main reasons of resulting the Challenger shuttle disaster. Also, by outlining Perrow’s (1999) Normal Accident Theory, it argues that complex interaction system regarded as a technical reason that caused the inevitability of this accident. In order to explore how to improve the quality of shuttle projects of NASA, the second part of this literature review outlined …show more content…
However, during the shuttle flight, the Challenger was broken apart 73 seconds later in Florida. As a result, this launching of this shuttle exploded and killed seven crew members inside the shuttle. The President of America instituted a special Commission to identify the causes of this shuttle disaster. One possible technical cause was the failure of the O-ring seals of the Solid Rocket Booster on the right of the shuttle due to faulty design of the SRB and insufficient low temperature. The failure of O-ring brought hot combustion gases from the booster and burned through the external fuel tank, causing the Challenger damaged. However, after problems searching, the Commission disclosed a lack of communications between different levels of NASA management. The poor management also accounted as one of the main reasons that caused the shuttle …show more content…
The first one developed by Perrow (1999) is System Accident that resulted from complex interactions of various independent factors, and tight coupling of components, which the “domino” effect conducted. It represents that only a part of the entire system fails, there is not going to have enough time to stop these connected elements that affected by this broken system. The second theory developed by Perrow (1999) is Component Failure Accident, which can be described by predictable and visible linear interactions between different parts of s system, and loose coupling in which discontinues the effect from the failed elements. These theories demonstrate in the Challenger shuttle project, the failures of all chain reactions are associated with System Accident, which are common phenomena in this high technical field. They also describe that the difficulties of taking account of those multiple connecting