Human Reliability Engineering

Human reliability engineering (HRE) is the description, analysis, and improvement of situations in which human errors have been made or could be made. The probability of human error is distinguished from the probability of incident. HRE can be carried out at different levels: A. Prevention with regard to a future human error; B. Prevention of a future incident and correction of the situation in which a human error occurred; C. Correction of the situation in which an incident happened. Statistical techniques, observational methods, and the critical incident technique are briefly described in connection with the reason of human error. Measures of error-reduction are classified in a work-situation approach and in human approach. The conclusions are¿a. The paper creates a framework in which the human reliability engineer can carry out his work. b. In a risk analysis, human errors have to be taken into account. c. The ratio of human-caused errors to situation-caused errors, which is often mentioned in literature as 20:80, does not hold. d. The taxonomy of human errors which is dealt-with reasonably leads to the improvement of the man-machine system under study. e. The critical incident technique is very useful in human reliability engineering. In particular it gives insight into situation-caused errors. f. Each work situation ought to be described and analyzed in detail with regard to human errors. Because an employee is an expert subject he should participate in work situation analysis.