Literature Review on Human Factor

Literature Review on Human Factor

Introduction

In most of the situations, human beings are considered as the main cause of any accident or incident, but it is a fact that, human rarely makes mishaps intentionally. In this situation, human factor may play a vital role in minimizing risk of any mishap or avoiding any unfavorable situation. Human factors plays a vital role in identifying adverse or unfavorable effects on the performance of human, recognizing potential errors and identifying solutions to reduce the impacts of any mistake. In precise words, human factors is considered as the scientific or logical application of knowledge about the limitations and capabilities of users with the goal of making environments, services, systems and products, easy and efficient to use5.

Therefore, human factors may greatly help in minimizing the risk of any dangerous or vulnerable situation. In other words, it may greatly help in reducing any consequent loss to the human life, property or performance. In most precise words, human factors may allow the organizations to minimize all possible errors while increasing the safety1.

Proceeding paper incorporates the main idea of human factor while discussing some of the techniques, which may help in dealing with the safety in the area of human factor. These techniques may include technique for human error rate prediction (THERP), human error assessment and reduction technique (HEART) and rail safety and standard board (RSSB-HRA) 2.Furthermore, strengths and limitations of these technologies are also incorporated in the proceeding paper.

Discussion

Human Factor

Human factor is referred as the regulation of optimizing the performance of individuals in the workplace environment. In precise words, human factor can be referred as the process of evaluating or designing system, procedures, tools, equipment and environment of work. Recent researches and case studies demonstrates that, human factor may play a vital role in improving and enhancing the over all performance of any system. In addition to this, human factor can also be used to guarantee that the technical system is manufactured to optimize the operations of its human elements. These human elements may include competence, recruitment, management, training and design of the interfaces of the human machine 1. On the other hand, human factor may also allow the organizations or manufacturers to minimize the requirement of redesigning the systems. This feature may also help those organizations to reduce the factor of cost while ensuring the excellence in organizational processes. In 1998, Gordon described an actual concept of human factor. According to his views, human factor is nothing more than the interaction among machines and human, which was expended to incorporate the effect of an organizational, group and individual factors on the entire safety of an organization or system3.

On the other hand, other practitioners, like Mark S. Sanders demonstrated human factor in the various different aspects. According to his views, human factor has two major objectives. These objectives may include improvement and enhancement in the efficiency and effectiveness of the system's performance, while ensuring the increased productivity, convenience and ...