Chapter 33 - Human Reliability Assessment

Abstract

This chapter discusses human reliability assessment (HRA). This book discusses the importance of quality for survival in business and control of quality in design and production phases to meet customers' expectation. This chapter deals with general principles for HRA and specific application in the offshore industry. The HRA has three principle steps human error identification, human error quantification, and human error reduction. The earlier a life-cycle stage, the more difficult the task- and human-error identification phases will be, since much of the required detail concerning operator tasks and equipment will not be available. Task analysis is a fundamental approach that describes and analyzes how the operator interacts with a system itself and with other personnel in that system and is discussed in this chapter. Human errors are identified into three classes: slips and lapses, mistakes, and violations. An overview of the HRA process is given first. Then each major step is discussed with emphasis on how to identify, assess, and reduce human errors. It should be noted that a brand of errors that has yet to be properly classified is the errors that affect an organization, and which do so at a higher level. The human error analysis is effectively discussed in this chapter with the subsections human error quantification, impact assessment, etc. Human error reduction will be implemented if the impact of human error on the system's risk level is significant, or it may be desirable to improve the system's safety level even if the target risk criteria have been met.