Application of inherently safer design in human factor engineering

Abstract

Inherently safer design (ISD) is a basic approach that needs to be considered in any engineering design. Early process development and design requires designers and engineers to make various process decisions. The decisions demand in-depth assessment and understanding of the process so that whatever decided in the earlier phase of the lifecycle will not negatively impacted the process once operated. That is why, a significant amount of capital cost (±30%) of a process is actually spent on the early development stage. The decisions to be made are not only associated with the technical process aspects but also covers the human factor, which does have significant role in ensuring the safety of a process. Most industrial accident cases especially involving chemicals are due to defects in process facilities, human errors and other multi-cause accidents. Study of accident cases between 2010 and 2017 found that, several types of human failure acted in combination to contribute to more significant cause of chemical accidents. Accidents due to human factors are a result of unsafe acts, preconditions that contribute to unsafe acts, unsafe supervision and organizational or management influences. Human Factors Engineering (HFE) focuses on how apply understanding on human capabilities to avoid/reduce workplace accidents by designing jobs, equipment and procedures that are fit for people. By accounting for human features in workplace design, workers safety and health will be way more protected. Besides the organization itself will be better managed and more efficient. The best way to embed human factors in workplace design and operational planning is through ISD. The concept of ISD that focuses on the root or fundamental features of the process for permanent safety performance suits well with the aspiration of HFE. In fact, it is also highly recommended for the HFE to be considered as early as possible of a process lifecycle, which in-line with what is professed by the ISD concept. In this chapter, the idea of applying inherently safer design in human factor engineering is presented. It covers the introduction to HFE itself, before reviewing the existing works done related to the subject matter, then more detailed descriptions on work on inherent occupational health, which is very much related to human factors when it comes to chemical industries, and ended with some of the approaches used to apply ISD on HFE.