Human Factors Minute

...and now for another Human Factors Minute!

The Association for Computing Machinery (or ACM) hosts an annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (frequently refered to as CHI).

This series of academic conferences is generally considered one of the most prestigious in the field of human-computer interaction.

It is hosted by ACM SIGCHI, the Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction and is a place where researchers and practitioners gather from across the world to discuss the latest in interactive technology.

CHI attracts thousands of international attendees and has been held annually since 1982. For more information on CHI, visit SIGCHI.org

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Predetermined time standards (PTS) are advanced techniques which aim at defining the time needed for the performance of various operations by derivation from preset standards of time for various motions and not by direct observation and measurement.

A predetermined time standard is a work measurement technique whereby times established for basic human motions classified according to the nature of the motion and the conditions under which it is made is used to build up the time for a job at a defined level of performance.

A few of my most widely used predetermined time systems include the Methods-Time-Measurement (MTM). Maynard Operation Sequence Technique (MOST), and Modular Arrangement of Predetermined Tiem Standards (MODAPTS).

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There are a few lessons learned that we can take from the Chernobyl disaster.

Engaging our colleagues and leaders on the topics of human error, design failures and safety culture can help improve our workplaces.

Here are a few questions you can ask about your workplace:

What human factors influenced the behaviours of the operators in the control room? What factors might influence the key decisions that you and your team make?

Does your organisation impose artificial deadlines that may lead to corner-cutting or shortcuts, in order to meet targets?

Investigations sometimes conclude that an incident is the result of ‘human error’ and blame a few individuals. If we take this approach, how effective will we be at preventing similar events?

The design features of the RBMK nuclear reactors were known elsewhere, but not communicated to the personnel at Chernobyl. How does your organisation learn lessons? Do you really learn lessons (e.g. change your designs or processes), or do you simply share the messages? Does anyone follow-up that learnings have been embedded?

Are near-misses investigated and lessons shared within your company (and with the wider industry)? What might prevent such sharing?

How do you prepare staff for unusual situations, process upsets and emergencies?

How can you improve the effectiveness of on-site emergency plans (those implemented by the company) and off-site emergency plans (those implemented by the authorities)?

The criticality accident was not imagined by the designers. How can we identify and manage accident scenarios that are not currently addressed in existing analyses, safety reports or safety cases?

What are the disadvantages of relying upon operators to follow written instructions? What would be a more reliable approach?

Hopefully these questions were helpful to start applying some of the lessons learned from Chernobyl to your everyday lives.

That's all on Chernobyl for now, but we may revisit the topic in the future.

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...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Did you know that the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society has 24 technical groups that are concerned with the human factors aspects of specific application areas?

One of those is the Healthcare Technica Group

The Healthcare Technical Group is interested in maximizing the contributions of human

factors and ergonomics to medical systems’ effectiveness, patient safety and the quality

of life for people who are sick or functionally impaired. We seek to bring together

people who share our interests.

The healthcare domain is a growing sector of HFES, with interest being spurred by the

patient-safety movement, the growth of medical informatics, and the concerns for

medical needs of the aging population.

From studying specific medical devices, to the macro-ergonomic systems approach to safety

culture, the TG believes that human factors methodologies and techniques have much to offer

companies that design and manufacture medical products, as well as organizations that

establish health care environments, systems, policies, and procedures.

To find out more about HFES and their technical groups, visit HFES.org. This has been another Human Factors Minute!

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A U.S. worker dies as a result of a workplace injury every 2 hours.

In 2011 alone, almost 4 million U.S. workers were injured on the job.

While the Workers' Compensation system was designed to provide financial support to those injured at work, many injuries are not the result of the employer's work practices, but rather other entities.

Workplaces, especially construction sites, can be very dangerous, requiring extensive safety protocols and procedures to ensure the safety of workers and pedestrians.

Sometimes workers choose not to follow the safety protocols.

OSHA's commonly cited General Duty Clause requires that employers provide a workplace that is free from recognized hazards, however the next paragraph in the code is often forgotten:

"Each employee shall comply with occupational safety and health standards and all rules, regulations, and orders issued pursuant to this Act which are applicable to his own actions and conduct."

which places part of the responsibility of the employees to interact with their environment in a safe and responsible way.

Training and experience in Human Factors, specifically occupational safety and health, provides the foundation to investigate defective products, gross negligence or misconduct, or the actions of a third party on the worksite.

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Work sampling is a method in which the job is sampled at random intervals to determine the proportion of total time spent on a particular task.[46] It provides insight into how often workers are performing tasks which might cause strain on their bodies.

In a work sampling study, a large number of observations are made of the workers over an extended period of time. For statistical accuracy, the observations must be taken at random times during the period of study, and the period must be representative of the types of activities performed by the subjects.

One important usage of the work sampling technique is the determination of the standard time for a manual manufacturing task. Similar techniques for calculating the standard time are time study, standard data, and predetermined motion time systems

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Highly-trained and experienced operators can often compensate for a poor design; however, in the case of the Chernobyl disaster, the designers gave the operators too difficult a task.

The design was not at all forgiving of operator mistakes.

It may have been difficult for the operators to have compensated for design failures that they did not know about.

Not only were the plant operators unaware of key design weaknesses, the designers were unaware as well.

One example is the material used in the control rods. Control rods made of boron are lowered into the reactor core to slow the nuclear reaction. However, the tip of the control rods at Chernobyl were made of graphite, which temporarily increase the reaction as they enter the core.

The emergency AZ-5 button reinserts all of the control rods, which shuts down the reaction. When this button was pressed as a last resort, the large number of descending graphite tips led to a huge surge in reactor power.

Then, as parts of the system ruptured, the control rods were blocked from moving further down and so the graphite tips continued to accelerate the reaction, leading to the inevitable explosion.

The operators at Chernobyl were under the impression that the AZ-5 button was a fail-safe shut-down.

They were not aware of this design flaw. If they had understood, it may have influenced some of their decisions.

To this day, some major companies continue to blame control room operators, pilots, train drivers and offshore drillers, rather than explore design issues or leadership behaviours that set these staff up to fail.

The Chernobyl plant wasn’t just operated by humans, it was also designed by humans; and all humans can make mistakes.

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Members of the Forensics Professional Group are interested in all aspects of human

factors as applied to litigation matters, both civil and criminal.

FPGs goal is to bring ergonomic data and approaches to the investigation of losses

influenced by design or by human limitations. Arguments may be presented on the

degree to which a design meets current standards and known limitations and

capabilities of the prospective users. The features and provisions for safety, instructions,

and foreseeable misuses are also examined.

The role of the expert witness in the judicial process differs from that of the ordinary

witness in that an expert may give opinion testimony based on specialized

knowledge and training, while a ordinary witness is restricted to specific information

experienced or observed concerning the event under consideration. Anyone with

knowledge in an area of practice well beyond that likely in a jury member may be

declared by the Court to be an expert witness. However, an expert’s credentials are often

important to judges and juries in their evaluation of whether the witness is qualified as

an expert.

Human factors/ergonomics professionals are often uniquely qualified to evaluate the

interactions of people with machines and procedures. They are well prepared to apply

the scientific data on operator performance in practical operating settings.

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A time study is a structured process of directly observing and measuring human work using a timing device to establish the time required for completion of the work by a qualified worker when working at a defined level of performance.

Typically, time studies determine the time required for a worker to complete each task. by breaking the work into small, easily-measurable components or elements, measurement of those components and, synthesizing data from those measured components to arrive at an overall time for the complete job.

Time studies are often used to analyze cyclical jobs, or jobs that are conducted repeatedly by the operator.

Many times, these types of tasks are considered "event based" studies because time measurements are triggered by the occurrence of predetermined events.

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The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an association dedicated to advancing innovation and technological excellence for the benefit of humanity and is the worlds largest technical professional society. It is designed to serve professionals involved in all aspects of electrical, electronic and computing fields and related areas of science and technology that underlie modern civilization. IEEE and its members inspire a global community to innovate for a better tomorrow through its more than 400,000 members in over 160 countries and its highly cited publications, conferences, technical standards and professionals as well as educational activities. IEEE is the trusted voice for engineering computing and technological information. Putting on conferences around the globe to serve these various technological areas of expertise. The various conferences put on by IEEE serve the community to keep them informed about major trends and developments in technology, engineering, and science like Human Factors.

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