INTEGRATION OF HUMAN FACTORS ENGINEERING AT THE EARLY DESIGN OF HYDROCARBON AND CHEMICAL PROCESSING FACILITIES

Abstract

Human error is a major recurrent theme in industrial incidents in the Hydrocarbon Processing Industry and Chemical Processing Industry. However, advances in the science of Human Factors have shown that human error is not the root cause of such incidents but rather a mechanism of how these incidents transpire. Therefore, to manage human error, it is important to understand their mechanism and the conditions that give rise to them, that is, understand the human elements that can increase or decrease the likelihood of human error. Numerous activities are prescribed to manage human error. One group of activities occurs during the design and construction stages of capital or upgrade projects. While the remaining activities occur during startup and operations. This thesis describes both groups. However, the main focus is on the former, more specifically at the conceptual design stage where limited information is available. In this study, industry practices have been reviewed, and potential approaches to help designers make more informed decisions at the conceptual design stage are presented. The study reveals the challenging nature of early HFE integration and presents an initial effort to estimate Human Error Probabilities at such an early stage where limited plant data is available. The topics explored include the use of performance metrics to support HFE integration, use of Cognitive Work Analysis, use of process simulation, and the application of Bayesian Belief Networks.