‘Human Factors’ study in workboat safety
The majority of marine accidents cite human error as a causal factor, yet human factors as a discipline is often overlooked, writes Chris Greenbank, Human Factors Specialist at BMT Reliability Consultants.
Part of the problem is that bland terms such as ‘human factors’, ‘ergonomics’ and ‘the human element’ actually hide what the subject is about and lead to a prevailing but erroneous belief that human factors is only about designing control panel layouts or user interfaces. Human factors is about reducing error, improving safety and delivering optimal performance.
It’s true to say that human factors is applicable throughout the workboat’s lifecycle – from the user needs that drove the initial requirements through to the design, operational use and eventual disposal. Humans are complex individuals and so are the underlying reasons why we make mistakes.
Accidents or incidents normally occur through a sequence of events. Human factors specialists help to understand the fundamental strengths and weaknesses of people, and use this to identify things that may trip up human performance. Taking a systematic approach to where human error leads to a safety impact is an effective way of improving overall safety. It is useful to step back and think about how and where people interact with the system, what they are trying to achieve and what constraints are on them (time, commercial pressures to complete a task, etc). It is then helpful to break human factors down into more manageable chunks and explore the human performance elements applicable to your system. For example, in the UK we break human factors down into seven domains as part of the Human Factors Integration Process:
1. Manpower
2. Personnel
3. Training
4. Human Factors Engineering
5. System Safety
6. Health Hazards
7. Social and Organisational
Part of the issue is remembering that a workboat exists to do a job and it is the human element of that job that human factors specialists are interested in, i.e., everything a person touches, looks at or thinks about in the course of their role. In order to maximise human performance and safety, it is necessary to delve into the complexities of human error. To do that we must treat the workboat as a system of systems and consider that the cause of an accident or incident might even be decisions made in another organisation. People do not set out to make mistakes or injure themselves or others and yet it still happens. It is therefore important that identified mitigations work in practice.
Taking a systematic and structured approach to human factors as part of an overall safety management system is key to not only reducing errors but also optimising performance. Such an approach can also positively impact on commercial operators’ bottom line.
