Human Factors

The application of human factors helps achieve the best fit between people, the equipment they use, the tasks they perform, and the environment they work in. Effective application of human factors will make work safer, more reliable, efficient, and effective.

Every system or organisational process has a level of human interaction, whether it is as an operator, end user or designer. People interact with systems because they are more intelligent, creative, flexible and resourceful than machines. But just as machines are susceptible to failure, humans are also fallible and make mistakes; accidental or intentional. Human factors uses the combined knowledge of psychology, physiology, engineering and organisational knowledge to understand how humans interact with complex systems or processes, whether in routine, maintenance or emergency operations.

There are several benefits to the integration and use of human factors. These include but are not limited to:

• Reducing human error to achieve safer operations and more reliable operations
• More efficient, effective, and productive processes and systems
• Higher standards of performance and quality outputs
• A reduction in commissioning and operating costs through optimisation of people processes and design discipline that helps ensure a system is fit for purpose