2 - Human reliability assessment

A bibliometric analysis of human reliability research

The traditional approach to the study of human factors in the maritime field involves the analysis of accidents without considering human factors reliability analysis. The main approach being use to analyze human errors are statistical approach and probability theory approach. Another suitable approach to the study of human factors in the maritime industry is the quasi-experimental field study where variations in performance (for example attention) can be observed as a function of natural variations in performance shaping factors. This paper analyzes result of modeling human error and human reliability emanating from the use of technology on board ship navigation in coastal water area by using qualitative and quantitative tools. Accident reports from marine department are used as empirical material for quantitative analysis. The literature on safety is based on common themes of accidents, the influence of human error resulting from technology usage design, accident report from MAIB and interventions information are use for qualitative assessment. Human reliability assessment involves analysis of accident in waterways, emanating from human-technology factors interface. This paper report an enhancement requirement of the methodological issues with previous research study, monitoring and deduce recommendations for technology modification of the human factors necessary to improve maritime safety performance. The result presented can contribute to rule making, and safety management leading for development of guideline and standards for human reliability risk management for ship navigating within inland and coastal waters.

The development of a nuclear chemical plant human reliability management approach: HRMS and JHEDI

Book review

The human factors area is one of the core field of industrial safety. It is deeply recognized that human factors are the main cause of accidents and breakdowns in various industries. Physiological mental states of human operators, like fatigue or vigilance, are crucial for the evaluation of human operators reliability. However, the shortages of measurements of physiological mental states limit their application. So human reliability analysis (HRA) is developed and many techniques have been developed. Among these techniques, cognitive reliability and error analysis method (CREAM) is often applied and discussed. Due to the application limits of common performance conditions (CPCs) in original CREAM approach, it is advised to generate a new list of CPCs for the application domain if CREAM approach is applied to other domains. In this contribution, a new approach defining a situated and dynamical human reliability measure is established. The approach is based on the well-known CREAM approach, which is modified with respect to the use in dynamical context. The new list of CPCs, their levels and corresponding effects on human reliability are determined. A new index, human performance reliability score (HPRS), is proposed for the assessment of human operator reliability. Finally, the applicability and correctness of the newly established approach is verified by data analysis.

The well-known standardized plant analysis risk-human reliability (SPAR-H) methodology is widely used for analysis of human reliability in complex technological systems. It allows assessing the human error probability taking into account eight important groups of performance shaping factors. Application of this methodology to practical problems traditionally involves assumptions which are difficult to verify under the conditions of uncertainty. In particular, it introduces only two possible values of the nominal human error probabilities (for diagnosis and for actions) which do not cover the whole spectrum of the tasks within operator's activity. In addition, although the traditional methodology considers the probabilities of human errors as the random variables, it operates only on a single predefined type of distribution for these variables and does not deal with the real situations in which the type of distribution remains uncertain. The paper proposes modification to the classical approach to enable more adequate modeling of real situations with the lack of available information. The authors suggest usage of the interval-valued probability technique and of the expert judgment on the maximum probability density for actual probabilities of human errors. Such methodology allows obtaining generic results that are valid for the entire set of possible distributions (not only for one of them). The modified methodology gives possibility to derive final assessments of human reliability in interval form indicating “the best case” and “the worst case.” A few numerical examples illustrate the main stages of the suggested procedure.

Chapter 9 - Human Factors and Human Error

The increasing technological complexity and scale of process plants demands proportionate attention to the contribution of human performance if public safety and capital investment are not to be jeopardised. In some industries there exists a strong long-term commitment to human factors engineering to maximise human reliability and to ensure that the generally good engineering reliability inherent in most plants is not to be frustrated by human error which now provides a major contribution to unreliability. This unreliability results from activities in design, construction, operation, but predominantly in maintenance and testing.

An empirical study on the basic human error probabilities for NPP advanced main control room operation using soft control

Human error in manual assembly systems affects system reliability, safety and it is one of the most important causes of quality defects. Many researchers have developed methods for Human Reliability Analysis (HRA) with the aim of identifying, modeling, quantifying and reducing human error, mainly in safety-critical industries. This paper addresses human reliability analysis in assembly systems, where most of the employed workforce is currently involved. The main purpose is to systematically investigate the current state-of-the-art on this topic, analyzing and summarizing the theoretical and empirical contents, identifying patterns and research streams, informing the strengths and weakness of selected literature and so highlighting the research and practice opportunities. The results of this study show that a prospective analysis of human reliability in the manual assembly systems until now has been neglected in literature. Nevertheless, HRA methods and assembly specific methodologies and approaches found in literature can be successfully applied to assembly systems, allowing users to predict human error probability and to determine the most significant error influencing factors. Furthermore, the results highlight the role of human error in the occurrence of quality defects (rejected or reworking). This paper, therefore, contributes to the transfer of knowledge about human reliability gained in manual assembly operations, providing practitioners and researchers with a comprehensive overview of this topic and several research opportunities for future studies.

<p>Human error in manual assembly systems affects system reliability, safety and it is one of the most important causes of quality defects. Many researchers have developed methods for Human Reliability Analysis (HRA) with the aim of identifying, modeling, quantifying and reducing human error, mainly in safety-critical industries. This paper addresses human reliability analysis in assembly systems, where most of the employed workforce is currently involved. The main purpose is to systematically investigate the current state-of-the-art on this topic, analyzing and summarizing the theoretical and empirical contents, identifying patterns and research streams, informing the strengths and weakness of selected literature and so highlighting the research and practice opportunities. The results of this study show that a prospective analysis of human reliability in the manual assembly systems until now has been neglected in literature. Nevertheless, HRA methods and assembly specific methodologies and approaches found in literature can be successfully applied to assembly systems, allowing users to predict human error probability and to determine the most significant error influencing factors. Furthermore, the results highlight the role of human error in the occurrence of quality defects (rejected or reworking). This paper, therefore, contributes to the transfer of knowledge about human reliability gained in manual assembly operations, providing practitioners and researchers with a comprehensive overview of this topic and several research opportunities for future studies. </p>

In the civil aviation sector, human factors is the primary cause of many safety incidents. Aircraft flying, maintenance, and operations are the major tasks that are heavily dependent on professionals; thus, they are subject to human error probability. Human reliability analysis (HRA), which can evaluate human state and managing risk, has been developed over the years to identify, predict, and reduce human failures throughout aircraft operating procedures. Different generations of HRA tools have been developed to quantify the risks that are associated with safety accidents, including such as the Human Error Assessment and Reduction Technique, Technique for Human Error Prediction, Standardized Plant Analysis Risk Human Reliability Analysis, Cognitive Reliability and Error Analysis Methods, and Bayesian Network (BN). However, little is known about how these approaches are applied in aviation safety. This review aimed to systematically examine the current status of research on HRA in aviation accidents. A total of 13 studies were included and encompassed the studies of the first, second, and third generalizations of HRA alone or in combination with other methods (e.g., Improved Analytics Hierarchy Process, Functional Resonance Analysis Methods, Human Factor Analysis and Classification System, and Fault Tree Analysis). Results revealed that the third-generation HRA with BN was frequently used, showing great application potential for flight safety risk prevention and reduction. In the future, testing other third-generation HRA models driven by data in the field of airworthiness is necessary.

The validation of three Human Reliability Quantification techniques — THERP, HEART and JHEDI: Part II — Results of validation exercise

As part of an overall effort to upgrade and streamline methodologies for safety analyses of nonreactor nuclear facilities at the Savannah River Site (SRS), a human error data base has been developed and is presented in this report. The data base fulfills several needs of risk analysts supporting safety analysis report (SAR) development. First, it provides a single source for probabilities or rates for a wide variety of human errors associated with the SRS nonreactor nuclear facilities. Second, it provides a documented basis for human error probabilities or rates. And finally, it provides actual SRS-specific human error data to support many of the error probabilities or rates. Use of a single, documented reference source for human errors, supported by SRS-specific human error data, will improve the consistency and accuracy of human error modeling by SRS risk analysts. It is envisioned that SRS risk analysts will use this report as both a guide to identifying the types of human errors that may need to be included in risk models such as fault and event trees, and as a source for human error probabilities or rates. For each human error in this report, ffime different mean probabilities or rates are presented to cover a wide range of conditions and influencing factors. The ask analysts must decide which mean value is most appropriate for each particular application. If other types of human errors are needed for the risk models, the analyst must use other sources. Finally, if human enors are dominant in the quantified risk models (based on the values obtained fmm this report), then it may be appropriate to perform detailed human reliability analyses (HRAS) for the dominant events. This document does not provide guidance for such refined HRAS; in such cases experienced human reliability analysts should be involved.

Preparation for a sea voyage is one of the fundamental aspects of navigation. Several complexities are involved during the preparation of the ship for navigation due to the nature of maritime work. At this point, analysing human-related error is of paramount importance to ensure the safety of the ship and the crew. This paper describes the principles of a methodology, namely fuzzy-based shipboard operation human reliability analysis (SOHRA), to quantitatively perform human error assessment through procedures of preparing the ship for navigation. While the SOHRA (a marine-specific HRA approach) quantifies human error, the fuzzy logic deals with ambiguity and vagueness in the human error detection problem. The findings show that the total HEP (Human error probability) is found 1.49E-01 for preparing the ship for navigation. Consequently, the paper provides practical contributions to shore-based safety professionals, ship managers, and masters of the ship since it performs a systematic human reliability assessment and enhances safety control levels in the operational aspect.