Dr. Tobias Maier

Dr. Tobias Maier graduated with a doctorate in physics at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. He started his professional career as a software engineer at Method Park. In 2011, he switched to the company's consulting division and, since then, has advised customers in the healthcare and automotive industries on questions around process improvement, project and agile management, and organizational development. As a project manager, he worked in software development and improvement projects. In 2017, Tobias Maier became Method Park Principal Consultant for Organizational Change and Agile Transformation. He is SAFe® Program Consultant and takes on responsibility for the subject area of organizational change at Method Park.

Safety Culture - Can I buy this?

Thursday 03/12/20 from 10:45 am - 11:15 am

The standard for functional safety in road vehicles (ISO 26262) requires a "safety culture" as part of safety management. A rather narrow definition of safety culture provided by this standard primarily refers to processes and human resources. However, a safety culture requires much more than processes and human resources. Unfortunately, it is not easy to grasp what the term safety culture exactly means. And it is even more challenging to develop the desired final state: a safety-oriented mindset throughout the organization. Employees and managers have to shift their mindset towards this safety culture. In addition to appropriate processes, guidelines, and a clear safety strategy, the mindset and, consequently, the actions of people are essential for sustainable change. Together, employees of organizations need to change these components: the strategy, processes, and the mindset of the organization’s members, to develop a safety culture for the long term. Only with these changes, organizations can efficiently achieve product safety and compliance with the respective safety standards. Companies are aware of the required strategy and process changes, but the necessary cultural change is rather hard to grasp and is a long-term process. This presentation gives insights into the concept of a safety culture and shows which significance it has for product safety. It also introduces approaches for how to achieve a cultural change.