Human factors error prevention

Human factors, discussed in Section 4.2, enter a fault tree in the same manner as a component failure. The failure of manual actions, that prevent or mitigate an accident, are treated the same as hardware failures. The human error failure probability is conditioned by performance sluiping factors imposed by stress, training and the environment. 

A combination of on-the-job and off-the-job methods is usually the best solution in most types of training. The following factors should be examined in order to analyze the role of training in preventing human error. Team training will be considered in the social and organizational factors which follow in other sections. 

Using this process, a set of 90 human factors good practices was generated, with each good practice keyed to one of the seven major tasks listed above. Each was also keyed to the potential errors that that good practice can prevent. In this way, users are given the reasons for the recom-... 

Work has its special properties in coal mine production line workers, the subject they are productive activity, and is the main excitation accident. Personnel errors has become an important source of danger of accidents, on the one hand, it lies in internal factors, such as age, physical, physiological, psychological, their safety awareness effect on the other hand it lies in the external factors of workers in the work, such as the environment, enterprises of staff supervision, the completeness of machinery and equipment effects of the above factors, induced to have accidents tend to internal factors, external factors, individual, forming a human behavior set beam. Therefore, prevention and reduction caused by human factors of accidents has become an important issue to be solved in coal mine enterprise. 

It is illogical to conclude in an incident investigation that the principal causal factor is the unsafe act of the worker if the design of the workplace or the work methods is error-provocative. In such cases, the error-provocative aspects of the work should be considered primary. (A few organizations are giving courses on Preventing Human Error which focus on how to identify and prevent what they are calling error-likely work situations. This is a recent development.)... 

Leape, drawing on the psychology of error and human performance, rejected this formulation on several counts. Many errors are often beyond the individual s conscious control they are precipitated by a wide range of factors, which are often also beyond the individual s control systems that rely on error-free performance are doomed to failure, as are reactive attempts to error prevention that rely on discipline and training. He went on to argue that if physicians, nurses, pharmacists and administrators were to succeed in reducing errors in hospital care, they would need to fundamentally change the way they think about errors (Leape, 1994). 

This paper deals with the classification of an error type and the characteristics of human errors by each error type for the test and maintenance failures that have led to implanned reactor trips in Korean nuclear power plants. The classification of hmnan errors was basically performed on the taxonomy of Reason s basic error types (Reason 1990). Characteristics of the test and maintenance errors include the major contributing factors or error modes, and predictivity or identifiabil-ity of a potential erroneous action from the viewpoint of a human error prevention or management. 

There are ways to code components so someone does not confuse them. There are ways to design connectors and fittings so only correct mating parts connect. That prevents errors. References listed in the Bibliography provide insight into many techniques for incorporating human factors principles into maintainability. Many maintainability features involve safe maintenance and repair work. 

Several references were made in Chapter 3, Serious Injury Prevention, to human errors as the causal factors for accidents. And it was said that many serious injuries result from recurring but potentially avoidable human errors, and that organizational, cultural, technical, and management systems deficiencies often lead to those errors. Emphasizing human error reduction above the worker level, although proposed many years ago as a preventive measure, is not prominent in the work of safety professionals. 

This study indicated that for every 10 near misses, there will be an accident. While the accuracy of this study may be debated and other studies have produced different ratios, it is clear that if near misses are continually ignored, an accident will result. Further, the HSE Accident Prevention Unit has suggested that 90% of all accidents are due to human error and 70% of all accidents could have been avoided by earlier (proactive) action by management. It is clear from many research projects that the major factors in most accidents are human factors. 

Consequently, prevention and error management programs based on system safety and human factors concepts not only improve safety within the workforce, but are also commercially attractive. As Professor Patrick Hudson, a leading world expert in system safety and human factors has argued, a company safety department or system should be seen as a profit centre, not as a cost centre (Hudson, 1998). 

One of the key benefits of integrating human factors into risk assessment is proactive identification and prevention of human failure, whether it be an error or violatioa As with all risk management, the level and depth of analysis and the time and resources should be commensurate with the level of risk involved. 

These studies tend to emphasise the crucial role of the organisation in die management of job and personal factors, principally aimed at preventing human error. 

There are three areas of influence on people at work, namely the organisation, the job and personal factors. These areas are directly affected by the system of communication within the organisation, and by the training systems and procedures in operation, all of which are directed at preventing human error. 

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