Software

The Human Factors Workbench

A comprehensive tool for supporting human factors analyses

The Human Factors Workbench (HFW) suite is an integrated set of human factors tools designed to support a wide range of analyses that are typically carried out in safety critical systems in the healthcare, chemical processing, aviation, power generation and other industries. These tools have been applied extensively in many projects over the past 15 years and have been shown to make substantial contributions to safety and efficiency. By providing an integrated software environment, the HFW allows analysts to combine the results of a number of techniques when carrying out an overall analysis.

Click here to go to a technical paper that describes the functions available in the HFW in more detail

The following tools are provided by modules in the HFW:

Risk ranking

This tool allows the analyst to carry out a simple and rapid evaluation of the areas where human errors will have the most severe consequences. This screening analysis can be applied to prioritise which tasks or subtasks should be addressed first when embarking upon an analysis.

Qualitative Human Factors Risk Assessment for Safety Cases

This module provides all the tools necessary for conducting the human factors risk assessmnets required by many regulatory authorities (e.g. the COMAH Safety Cases required by the Health and safety Executive in the UK). Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA) is a method for systematically documenting tasks to provide a basis for the development of training, procedures and risk assessments. HTA breaks tasks down into a graphical representation of overall task goal, subtasks and the steps within these subtasks to the level of detail required for the application. This can then be converted to a table, suitable as the starting point for procedures, training development and the risk analyses performed by the Predictive Human Error Analysis (PHEA) tool

PHEA is analogous to the HAZOP and FMEA techniques used in engineering. The steps in the task analysis developed using HTA are evaluated by applying a set of guide words to assist the analyst in identifying possible failure modes. The consequences of these errors are then explored, and if these are severe, the analyst then documents the appropriate error prevention strategies. Typical failure modes considered are:

Action omitted
Action too late/ early
Right action on wrong object
Check omitted
Communication omitted
Communication too late

Sequential Timed Event Plotting (STEP)

STEP provides a method for plotting the sequence of events in task. When analysing a task, STEP allows the taks steps to be plotted in time, and each step to be assigned to the Agent (person or object) required to perform the task. In accident investigation, STEP can be used to understand the interactions between people and hardware that gave rise to the accident. The software allows the accident sequence to be constructed by linking events together to show how they led to the ultimate outcome.

Procedures design

This module utilises the HTA tool to rpovide a logical and rapid method for developing operating procedures based upon the inputs from subject matter experts. The procedure is developed in a graphical environment, which is then automatically converted to a standard column based procedure which can be exported as a Microsoft Word document. This process generates comprehensive, easy to understand procedures in a fraction of the time required using conventional methods. The outputs can be tailored to adhere to standard company templates if required.

Human Error Prediction and Assesment (HEPA)

HEPA provides a method for assessing the factors that influence the likelihood of human error in a situation, based on a model of human error for the type of task being evaluated. Thus for maintenance tasks, factors such as operator competence, level of fatigue, level of distractions, overall workload, quality of procedures/checklists, design of equipment would be included. HEPA can be applied in a number of ways when used with the other techniques in the Human Factors Workbench. For example, in the Predictive Human Error Technique, HEPA can be used to assess that factors that influence the likelihood of the possible errors and their consequences, and thus develop methods for prevention. MITRE can also be applied in the STEP accident investigation tool to investigate the factors that influence the errors that were involved in the accident sequence.

Causal Tree analysis

This module supports the 'Five Whys' and Causal Tree Analysis methods for Root Cause and accident investigation.

Costs

The cost of a single user copy of the full HFW package is UKP 1000.

.Support packages are available from 20% of the purchase cost per annum. This includes, updates, bug fixes and email support.

Discounts are available for multiple licences purchased at the same time.

Quotations for Corporatesite licences are available on request. Educational discounts are available for bona fide organisations. Please contact us for details. All sales in the European Union are subject to VAT at the current rate.

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