In the manufacturing industry we design equipment and processes to be as consistent and fail safe as possible. All manufacturing plants however rely on human beings to operate and maintain them. Therefore most facilities devote significant resources to develop clear, consistent operating and maintenance procedures, and conduct extensive personnel training so they are well understood.
Even the most reliable equipment can fail. Even the best operators and mechanics are subject to human error. The best way to prevent human error is to better understand it, and incorporate that understanding into your equipment design and training efforts. There are four broad categories of human error in the interaction between people and machines:
- Anthropometric factors: These relate to the size and/or strength of the operator or maintainer. A person, or part of the person (hand, etc) does not fit into the space available, cannot reach something, or is not strong enough to lift or move something.
- Human sensory factors: These factors concern the ease with which people can see, hear, feel, and even smell what is going on around them. For operators this could be the visibility and legibility of instruments. For maintainers this could be visibility of components in complex systems. Background noise frequently affects the ability of people to correctly do their jobs.
- Physiological factors: These are environmental stresses which affect human performance. Stresses include high or low temperatures, loud or irritating noises, excessive humidity, high vibration, exposure to chemicals or radiation, or simply working too long at a physically or mentally demanding task.
- Psychological factors: These are by far the most complicated and complex factors to eliminate. Human psychological errors can be intended or unintended. An unintended error could occur when someone does an appropriate task, but does it incorrectly. An intended error could result from someone deliberately setting out to do something, but what they do is inappropriate. Unintended errors can be "slips" ie attentional failures; or a "lapse" ie memory failure. Intended errors can be a "mistake" ie misapplication of a good rule/application of a bad rule; or a "violation" either routine, exceptional or intentional acts of sabotage.
Not all human errors are necessarily the fault of the person who made the error. Error proofing and designing out the potential for human error are critical to a manufacturing firm's operational excellence strategies. Synchronous experts are well position to help you understand contributors to human error, and to implement preventive actions. Send us an information request to Sales@SynchronousLLC.com , or review our full portfolio of service offerings at our web site www.SynchonousLLC.com
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