Human Factor Risk Analysis

 Human Factor Risk Analysis

 The unfortunately well-known quarterly industrial accident analysis shows a clear lesson: in most of them, a crucial role is assigned to causes related to human error.

Despite that, paradoxically, the “human factor” has not played the relevant role that corresponds to it in the risk analyses until quite recently. The arrival of Human Factor Risk Analysis methodologies, such as the safety critical task analysis (SCTA), Human HAZOP, and other systemic approaches has alleviated this deficit to a certain extent. With tools like these, the apparent multiplicity of deviations that humans can introduce into the systems is configured through parameters, and the risk analysis is complemented, so that corrective and control measures are adopted (as shown in the example in Figure 8), minimizing the probability of anomalous behaviors (mistakes, distractions, lapses or violations) and, above all, minimizing the importance or consequences of those anomalous behaviors.

 It is therefore essential to understand the real determinants that could lead to failures in operations at the facilities (PIFs or Performance Influencing Factors). Human Factor Risk Analyses systematically analyze the deviations that operators can introduce into the system, taking into account the PIFs, assessing the anticipated consequences (accidental or otherwise), considering the available safeguards and defining the corrective and control measures that need to be introduced. These corrective measures to be introduced, which are the true reason behind conducting these analyses, can cover the implementation of process safety elements, indicators, relocation of equipment or controls, etc., and not only training and information or organizational measures.