If they are not still idiots by then, we know that, commonly, people make at least 10 different types of mistakes or errors like those below:
1. errors due to forgetfulness
2. errors due to misunderstanding
3. errors in identification
4. errors made by amateurs
5. willful errors
6. inadvertent errors
7. errors due to slowness
8. errors due to lack of standards
9. surprise errors
10. intentional errors
As a management systems auditor, i have noticed that many root causes of NCRs are people-related when the systems are not made to be fail-safed or error-proofed (to put it nicely in formal terms). Overlooked, forgotten, too busy and all the above types are reasons commonly given when replying for the causes of NCRs.
We must then ask ourselves.."when and why did all this happened....?" Process Specialists study and take steps to prevent the errors using "poka-yoke" (japanese: translated as avoid errors) methods (or informally called...idiot-proofing...this is to make sure even if all the remaining idiots do the job, it will be without errors!!)
For all that, I believe, we must first and foremost treat all people as idiots and start creating systems that is ...err..."people"-proofed....
