A practical guideline for human error assessment: A causal model

Abstract

To meet the availability target and reduce system downtime, effective maintenance have a great importance. However, maintenance performance is greatly affected in complex ways by human factors. Hence, to have an effective maintenance operation, these factors needs to be assessed and quantified. To avoid the inadequacies of traditional human error assessment (HEA) approaches, the application of Bayesian Networks (BN) is gaining popularity. The main purpose of this paper is to propose a HEA framework based on the BN for maintenance operation. The proposed framework aids for assessing the effects of human performance influencing factors on the likelihood of human error during maintenance activities. Further, the paper investigates how operational issues must be considered in system failure-rate analysis, maintenance planning, and prediction of human error in pre- and post-maintenance operations. The goal is to assess how performance monitoring and evaluation of human factors can effect better operation and maintenance.