Errors will always occue no matter how diligent people are - that's life.
The only approach I know to eliminating defects (ie the consequences of
errors) is to use a mistake-proofing system of self-checks, successive
checks and mistake-proofing devices. In manufacturing this usually means
that the process monitors itself and either shuts down or self-corrects
when an error occurs.
In office or information processing work you tend to lean towards
successive checks - ie checking to see if an error has been made at the
previous point in a process before continuing with the subsequent process.
The key point in this is that errors are a natural part of human life, the
goal is to prevent them producing defects in whatever process we are
considering.
Regards
Malcolm Jones
Productivity Europe Ltd
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