124 research outputs found
The systematic integration of Human Factors into safety analyses: an integrated engineering approach
No full textThe performance of the human reliability analysis (HRA) and integration of its outcomes into quantitative risk assessment schemes remains quite a difficult and complex task to perform. Even worse is the assessment of organisational reliability assessment. The reasons of this difficulty mainly lay on the absence of a generically accepted paradigm that enables engineers to include systematically human and organisational factors (H&OF) into the analysis. Broadly speaking, engineering approaches very often account for error of omission forgetting the errors of commission (EOC), and, on top of that, they do not make any macro distinction between pre- and post-initiating human failures. This paper offers a paradigm on how to integrate H&OF into safety analysis by means of the recursive operability analysis (ROA), which has been adapted to accommodate H&OF, and renamed integrated recursive operability analysis (IROA). By means of a practical example, the method will illustrate how to account for H&OF in a systematic and consistent manner using an engineering approach. The paper will even provide a paradigm for the construction of integrated fault trees consistent with the IROA framewor
Editorial
No full textEditorial of the Special issue articles on Human and organisational factors in risk and maintenance managemen
A semi-quantitative methodology to evaluate the main local territorial risks and their interactions
No full textThe paper presents a semi-quantitative methodology at a local scale, developed to increase the efficacy of Land Use Planning related to the Management of risks, in particular as far as it concerns multiple risks impinging on the same territory (Multi-risks). At the moment, each risk is managed through a dedicated sectorial plan, having its proper procedures and scale, and the only “meeting point” for these plans – at least in Italy - are the Municipal city plans. The Municipalities have to implement the contents related to the various risks and directly intervene on the territory, but the lack of linkage and coordination between the plans and the authorities in charge often makes the emergency management and LUP less effective towards the achievement of a real safety of territories. In addition, the actual legislative framework does not face the possible consequences of risk interactions. In this context, the objective was to develop a simple risk pre-screening tool, expressly designed for local planners, able to point out the areas more exposed to risks and risks interactions, in order to better address the distribution of the municipal resources for further studies and interventions. The local planners that, especially in Italy, have a central role for the risk management of the territory, became the central point for the proposed framework, assuming the role of evaluators, and then decision-makers. A semi-quantitative approach, based on an index scale from 0 to 3 onwards was developed for a direct use from Municipal technicians; the proposed scale is applied to measure both the impact of the risks and risk interaction. The methodology is composed by 4 steps: 1) characterization of the risks; 2) assignation of the ratings to the risks; 3) assessment of binary risk interactions; 4) assessment of the compatibility and planning phase. Each step is accompanied by GIS mapping. The methodology was tested on two Italian case-studies, two Municipalities affected by multiple types of risks which could interact; the proposed approach demonstrated to be able in identifying and bring multi-risks aspects to the attention of the decision makers, constituting a guide to risk that can be integrated with the existing planning instruments to improve the quality of decisions related to risks
A semi-quantitative risk assessment method in process plants: Confined spaces
No full textThe purpose of the present work was to develop a methodology for the confined spaces risk assessment in the workplace. Within the technological risk function, R=PxD, in order to account for the specific features of confined spaces, the probability of occurrence P was defined in two indices: the frequency of exposure to confined spaces, F, and the contact time I (strictly related to the complexity of the intervention that must be performed). The damage M has been separated into specific parameters considering the energy, the environment and the geometry of the confined space under examination, and in detail: an incorrect or not correctly signalled insulation that may lead to a sudden operation of part of the system with consequent accidental leakage of fluids or substances inside the confined space and / or movement of any mechanical part, with the energy damage factor DE; the atmosphere present in the confined space, which may be poorly oxygenated, corrosive, harmful, toxic or potentially explosive, with the environment damage factor DA. Moreover, as a specific corrective factor of damage factors, the criticality of the physical and geometrical characteristics of the confined space is evaluated, considering how it’s easy for the worker to leave the confined space or to be rescued if he feels bad, with the factor of FCDG geometry damage correction. Once the damage factors have been identified and corrected with the FCDG factor, the specific risks of the confined space are evaluated by multiplying each damage factor by the probability of occurrence P, thus obtaining the index of: Risk of contact with hazardous substances or with moving mechanical parts; Asphyxiation risk; Chemical risk; Risk of fire and explosion. The application of this method to the confined spaces of a real process plant allowed to validate the methodology
VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT FOR HUMAN TARGETS DUE ASH FALLOUT FROM MT. ETNA
No full textThe volcanic ash fallouts are able to affect the human health and the integrity of industrial facilities. The study of the effects associated with ash emissions was the objective of the PRIN project carried on by the authors of this paper. The activities of the project allowed to define a simplified procedure for the vulnerability assessment of human and industrial targets, that has been applied to the area surrounding Mt. Etna. Recent several ash fallouts from this volcano have caused significant problems to the resident population, traffic and industrial activities. The application of the study to this territory provided a vulnerability mapping to support the decision making both in terms of the definition of protection measures and of the emergency planning and management
A multi-discipline method to assess the human performance in manufacturing industry for safety and quality optimization
No full textNowadays the majority of organizations operating in manufacturing field recognize the importance of including the Human Factor contribution in the industrial process optimization (Hong et al. 2007). Technical measures and work organization procedures have been optimized in order to reduce the defects and waste generation but the Human Performance prediction still represents for Managers a difficult task to deal with.The prediction of the human performances of all workers involved in a production system would help Managers in better allocating the human resources. In order to reach this objective, a model to quantify the human capability of managing a complex task in a working context characterized by a set of physical, organizational and cognitive factors was designed.This paper presents the preliminary results of a three years industry/academia partnership project to assess the human performance in manufacturing plant. A multi-discipline approach involving both technical and individual factors was adopted
Human and organizational factor risk assessment in process industry and a risk assessment methodology (MEDIA) to incorporate human and organizational factors
No full textHuman and organizational factors (HOF) contribute to large number of accidents in process industries, therefore it is of prime importance to include HOF into risk assessment. In this paper, a newly developed methodology "Method for Error Deduction and Incident Analysis (MEDIA)" is presented. MEDIA is a taxonomy based HOF assessment methodology which can be used to quantify the HOF risk based on an accidental database (EMARS). Primarily, MEDIA analyzes different organizational characteristics and their effect on human action's outcome. This methodology also accounts for available risk reduction factors and critically of human action failure
Statistical analysis of past accidents and a methodology (MEDIA) for Human and Organizational Factors assessment in process industries
No full textThis paper presents a statistical analysis of past accidents occurred between 1983-2013 reported to European Major Accidental Reporting System (EMARS) across seven industries for Human and Organizational Factor (HOF) assessment. The main purpose of this analysis is to provide guidelines for the HOF analysis and its quantification in chemical process industries. Five identified organizational factors have been chosen as performance shaping factors for human actions/interventions which are quantified using analysis of past accidents. The relation between organizational and human factors is developed and quantified using a newly developed methodology MEDIA. A case study is carried out for a pig launcher that is widely used in oil and gas facilities during pigging operations. Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) approach is used to identify the potentially critical human actions/ interventions based on guided brainstorming. After that, these identified actions/interventions analyzed using conventional FMECA approach and MEDIA. FMECA can provides a qualitative results, while MEDIA can provides quantitative results and also demonstrates the influence of an organization on human reliability. © 2015 Taylor & Francis Group
- …
