Building Human Factors into Design from Day One: Human Factors Engineering in Projects
Engineering design and human factors don’t always happen together. Too often, the design is finalised first, and human factors is brought in afterwards. At that point, any mismatch between what was designed and what the operator actually needs only shows up once the plant is running. That gap is what we call the “cliff edge.”
Matching Rigour to Risk: From Learning Teams to SCTA in GMP
If you work in pharmaceutical quality, you already live by a distinction this blog depends on: the difference between a useful discussion and a documented risk assessment. Both have their place. They are not the same thing, and you would never offer one where a regulator expects the other.
Road Tanker Offloading Human Factors: Simple, Complicated and Complex Problems
Road tanker offloading is routine. It happens every day, across hundreds of sites. That familiarity is part of what makes it dangerous.
Human Factors in the Mining, Minerals and Metals Industries: Building on Chapter 9
The mining, minerals, and metals sector is facing higher expectations on process safety and human factors than at any point in recent memory. That is a good thing.
The publication of the CCPS guidance Process Safety in the Mining, Minerals, and Metals Industries (December 2025) makes the new expectation explicit.
A Different Perspective on SCTA: When “Just Enough” Leads to Marginal Losses
We often talk about marginal gains in improving SCTA. This blog explores the other side: marginal losses and how quality can quietly erode over time.
It also looks at what it means to be an intelligent customer of analysis, not just asking “was it done?”, but “how well was it really done?”
Aviation Maintenance and Human Error: A Practical SCTA Case Study
We often think of safety in terms of operations, but maintenance plays an equally critical role.
In this blog, we look at a helicopter maintenance task and explore how Human Factors methods can be used to understand how things could go wrong, and why.
It’s a good reminder that even routine tasks deserve careful attention.
Human Factors in Major Accident Hazard Regulation and Guidance: A Descriptive Overview
Human Factors are now central to managing major accident risk. But how are they actually embedded in regulation and guidance around the world?
AI Agents and Human Performance: A SHERPA Approach to Hybrid Systems
AI is accelerating into safety-critical workplaces, but are we designing it thoughtfully?
We explore a fundamental challenge: When AI systems are designed around work-as-imagined rather than work-as-done, we risk disrupting safe practice rather than enhancing it.
How SCTA Builds Reliability and Resilience: A Whole-System Approach to Understanding Work
Reliability prevents failure.
Resilience helps us recover from it.
SCTA can strengthen both.
Meeting PABIAC’s Human Factors Objectives (Part 3): Getting Started with SCTA
This is the final instalment in our trilogy of blogs on meeting PABIAC’s Human Factors Objectives – Getting Started with SCTA.
