The Sydney Chapter of the Asset Management Council hosted a meeting on Thursday, 20th July, 2017, on the topic of Human Factors in Asset Management. At this meeting, presenter Max Hely – Manager, Sydney Trains, with three decades’ experience in providing Human Factors and safety management services, research, investigations and education to industry – shone a light on what may seem a ‘dark art’. He expanded on Human Factors, analysis and decision making throughout an Asset lifecycle. Max dispelled some of the myths and expanded on the integration of Human Factors with Asset lifecycle management.
Human Factors is the discipline that, together with Engineering, contributes to the design or selection of equipment, facilities and other systems to both minimise this risk and improve system performance. But what, exactly, is ‘Human Factors’?
In this presentation, Max shone a light on what, to many, seems to be a ‘dark art’. He covered a little of the background to the discipline of Human Factors (or HF), what it is, where it comes from, how it is done, and who does it.
Human error – often arising from problems with usability – is among the most significant contributions to incidents, accidents and losses. In doing this, he also dispelled some prevalent myths about HF, shoed how it can (or should) be successfully integrated into the lifecycle of any asset and explained how HF is not just a ‘nice to have’ but that it is legally, technically and ethically indefensible for Human Factors not to be embedded into all design and procurement decisions.
Max provided an excellent primer on the positioning of Human Factors as a professional practice within an Asset management context. He explained both the importance of involving Human Factors perspectives Asset Life Cycle and the recognition that processes and automation systems should be recognised as an asset that needs as much emphasis as the Asset itself.
The presentation of examples of where Human Factors were not given due recognition, drove home the importance of Max’s message.