The Human Factors Element

Another significant aspect of the human factors equation which should not be overlooked centers around the issue of product liability, especially in the commercial world of sales and service. The concept of strict liability has been the basis for numerous legal judgments during the past few decades. This philosophy implies that 

In short, it is essential that the design of a product or system consider the people-equipment interface during the very early stages of the design process if the final product is to have a high degree of reliability. 

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Because of the human factor element and the necessity to reduce risk of injury to personnel, the O SHA should therefore be performed as early in the product life cycle as possible, or, at the very least, prior to the first operational use of the system. This is not always entirely feasible because the design of the product or system must usually be practically complete before maintenance and operating procedures are developed. At any rate, the O SHA should be complete at the end of the production phase, prior to first use (Stephenson 1991). 

The functional FMEA is used to evaluate failures in one or many subsystems that function within a larger system, while the hardware FMEA examines failures in the assemblies, subassemblies, and components within those subsystems. The FMEA, therefore, has great versatility in the system safety process. The analysis can either be specialized, without regard for other subsystems which are not within the scope of the analysis, or it can be generalized to encompass total subsystem or system effects of a given failure condition. However, because the FMEA does not consider the human factors element or multiple failure analyses within a system, other types of system safety analysis tools and techniques should also be utilized. 

It is important to remember in any system humans can be a catalyst, a detriment, and/or a lifesaver. To implement complete system safety requires more than just evaluating the system hardware and software the human factor element is also critical. The dependability to correctly perform tasks and make correct decisions at the correct time cannot be overemphasized. Because people are not components, they cannot be treated in terms of complete failure, as is done with hardware components. HSI is concerned with the degradation of human performance in subtle ways. In order for humans to operate or otherwise handle a system, system safety must include HSI in a single integrated program and not two separate programs. Safety must be foremost in the review whenever a human task is analyzed. A system must not only operate within its specified performance requirements, but it must also be safe, user friendly, and user safe. The HMI interface, as well as the human influence on the system must also be part of all analyses to improve human performance and human rehabihty from a safety standpoint. 

Rimmington later reinforced this point with a more specific emphasis on the need to address the human factors elements in safety as follows ... 

While this process implies an ordered, structured process, it should be noted that the various stages overlap and it is frequently necessary to return to an earlier step in the process to modify or clarify information or decisions made in an earlier phase. The influence of the human factors aspects on design needs to be similarly integrated into the process design procedure. The particular human factors elements to be addressed at each phase are discussed below. These phases can be directly related to the human factors engineering and ergonomics (HFE/E) design approach described in Section 2.2. 

Absolute safety (or zero risk) does not exist for several reasons first, it is possible that several protection measures or safety elements can fail simultaneously second, the human factor is a source of error and a person can misjudge a situation or have a wrong perception of indices, or may even make an error due to a moment s inattention. 

The operation organization document describes the functions, responsibilities and mutual relationships of the plant personnel. The adequacy of its contents directly affects the adequacy of the human element to which the plant is entrusted. Great weight should be placed on this document as its content gives a measure of the attention given to the human factors of safety. 

The human factor engineering is an essential element of the control room facility design and Man-Machine Interface (MMI) design and its principles are systematically employed to ensure safe and convenient operation. Operating experience review analysis, function analysis, and task analysis are performed to provide systematic input to the MMI design. 

It should be operator forgiving, ie., the "human factor" as a risk element should be largely eliminated by design ... 

The element of the human factor in some major accidents will be dwelt upon -in some accidents, the behavior of one or two key individuals may sometimes lead to appalling losses, and it is informative to try to get inside their heads. Really extreme pressure may sometimes lead to strange behavior, which seems to defy logic. Case studies will discuss examples. 

An airport consists of numerous elements which are linked with various internal relations with a strong impact of the human factor. It is therefore a complicated socio-technical system. The correct operation of an airport requires providing the appropriate level of security by the Airport Managing Entity (AME). One of the aspects involved in providing security is protection against the acts of unlawful interference (ICAO 2010). The research related to providing the continuity of operation of an airport conducted so far focused mainly on the problem of operational availabiUty i.e. the reliability of various technical components of the airport system considered together with their structural reliability as well as the external... 

This paper suggests an evaluation of an airport security system based on a hierarchical model of fuzzy reasoning. This approach results from the fact that the tested system is heavily influenced by the human factor and other elements, which are not subject to unequivocal and precise description. It is impossible to detect the functional relationships between the various factors which influence the effectiveness of the security system and an evaluation of the security level. In such cases it is required to use expert opinions. As we have to deal with expert opinions, it is a known fact that very often they are formulated in a descriptive and an imprecise way. We must therefore view the decision making problem in context of uncertainty related to decision making (Dubois Prade 1992). All this locates the decision making problem in an area described by e.g. the theory of fuzzy sets or rough sets (Greco et al. 2001). 

Secondly, Platypus provides insight into the factors that influence the frequency of LoC events before accidents have taken place, whereas traditionally that information could only be derived from historical data. In Platypus, technical, organizational and human factors elements are integrated which enables an in-depth analysis of causes of LoC and the effectiveness of measures. This paper demonstrates how easy it would be to perform such an analysis. 

Regarding the overlap of activities in safety and security management, it is important to focus on the integral evaluation of the human factor role in relation to achieving the ultimate goal—the protection of all the elements in the Man-Machine-Environment system. 

The meaning of the word safety stems from the French sauf meaning no injnry. The emphasis is on assuring the state of safety, the state in which the risks of all the elements of the Man-Machine-Environment system are eliminated, with a focns on the human factor and technical subjects. 

Every safety approach listed in Figure 1.2 requires that you consider the human element or the psychology of safety. Indeed, the most successful approaches, behavior-based safety and comprehensive ergonomics, directly address the human aspects of safety. The bottom line is illustrated in Figure 1.3. The three employees here are looking at a contributing factor in almost every injury—the human factor. TTius, any safety intervention that improves the safety-related behaviors of workers will prevent workplace injuries. 

What is evident is that by far the most significant common element in the current accident pattern is that of the human factor. 

The primary factors which contributed to the accident are detailed in Table 1.1. The iirformation presented in Table 1.1 is taken from the Official Inquiry (HSE, 1979) with some re-phrasing simply to emphasise the human error elements. 

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