The Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF) has released a new paper providing a framework to integrate Human Factors into management systems. Human Factors: Management and Self Assessment is intended help companies and leadership teams address the conditions and systems that influence human actions and decisions, and so promote safety and excellence across all operations.
Often incidents are attributed to human involvement. This gives the impression that people cause incidents. However, most mistakes, actions and decisions are themselves the result of the way the workplace is set up, how work is designed, equipment and control measures, and how leaders influence the culture in an organisation.
Human factors are the physical, psychological and social characteristics that affect human
interaction with equipment, systems, processes, other individuals and work team(s).
It is the people on our ships and in our operations and support teams who make safety work. However, human error still occurs in interaction with conditions, systems and/or other people. By addressing these interactions, we can reduce human error, thereby reducing incidents and improving reliability and productivity.
OCIMF Managing Director Rob Drysdale said: “Human Factors is an integral part of the OCIMF strategy. It is a key enabler to further reduce safety, environment, security and health impacts within our industry. That means that it has to be part of any management system. However, a Human Factors element cannot be implemented overnight – it takes time for companies to become familiar with the concepts and understand how to apply them practically. Publishing this information paper will provide companies an opportunity to trial the ideas and provide feedback to OCIMF on potential improvements. The intention is to eventually integrate a Human Factors element into our suite of Management Self Assessments and we very much encourage feedback from users.” …read more (Source Maritime Cyprus).