Engineer’s View of Human Error

KIctz, T., P 1, An Engineer s View of Human Error, 2nd Edition, Institution of Che En leers, Rugby U.K. 

Despite the lack of interest in human factors issues in the CPI in the past, the situation is now changing. In 1985, Trevor Kletz published his landmark book on human error in the CPI An Engineer s View of Human Error (revised in 1991). Several other books by the same author e.g., Kletz (1994b) have also addressed the issue of human factors in case studies. Two other publications have also been concerned specifically with human factors in the process industry Lorenzo (1990) was commissioned by the Chemical Manufacturers Association in the USA, and Mill (1992), published by the U.K. Institution of Chemical Engineers. In 1992, CCPS and other organizations sponsored a conference on Human Factors and Human Reliability in Process Safety (CCPS, 1992c). This was further evidence of the growing interest in the topic within the CPI. 

Trevor Kletz, in An Engineer s View Of Human Error, gives a definition that relates more precisely to the places in which people work ... 

Kletz, T. A. 2001. A Engineer s View of Human Error, 3rd edn. Boca Raton, FL CRC Press. 

In 2010, the American Society of Safety Engineers sponsored a symposium titled Rethink Safety A New View of Human Error and Workplace Safety. Several speakers proposed that the first course of action to prevent human errors is to examine the design of the work system and work methods. Those statements support Deming s 85-15 rule. Consider this statement by a human error specialist [from this author s notes] ... 

Another researcher and often published author whose work has influenced this author s view of incident causation is Dr. Alphonse Chapanis. He was exceptionally well known in ergonomics and human factors engineering circles. His work is often quoted, particularly on the benefits of considering the capabilities and limitations of workers as systems are designed. Chapanis was strong on designing to avoid error-provocative work methods. 

Allied to Deming s view is the work of Alphonse Chapanis, who was prominent in the field of ergonomics and human factors engineering. Representative of Chapanis writings is The Error-Provocative Situation, a chapter in The Measurement of Safety Performance, by William E. Tarrants (Tarrants, p. 119). 

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