Evaluation Human Error in Control Room

Abstract

Background: Control room operators in industries are often responsible for expensive equipment and the health and safety of workers. This responsibility leads to stress and the increased likelihood of the occurrence of human error in their performance. Aim: To evaluate the effective factors on human errors in the control room workers. Methods: For a task analysis of the control room staff the hierarchical task analysis (HTA) technique is used. Human Error Assessment and Reduction Technique (HEART) are used in seven steps for each task, and the possibility of their human error is estimated. Results: The most important and the most prone job tasks to "human error are "monitoring and controlling warning symptoms by the operator" and "coordination" to resolve this problem by supervisor". Conclusion: In normal circumstances, the operators are able to perform multiple tasks simultaneously, but in some cases (emergency situations) that according to the operators' comment, they are forced to do several things simultaneously (more than the individual power), in such a situation there is a need for cooperation between people. In such a situation, the use of the software and to follow the instructions already provided can be useful.