Human Error

Human error has long been of interest, but only in recent decades has there been serious effort to understand human error in terms of categories, causation, and remedy. There are several ways to classify human errors. One is according to whether it is an error of omission (something not done which was supposed to have been done) or commission (something done which was not supposed to have been done). Another is slip (a correct intention for some reason not fulfilled) vs. a mistake (an incorrect intention which was fulfilled). Errors may also be classified according to whether they are in sensing, perceiving, remembering, deciding, or acting. There are some special categories of error worth noting which are associated with following procedures in operation of systems. One, for example, is called a capture error, wherein the operator, being very accustomed to a series of steps, say, A, B, C, and D, intends at another time to perform E, B, C, F. But he is “captured” by the familiar sequence B, C and does E, B, C, D.
As to effective therapies for human error, proper design to make operation easy and natural and unambiguous is surely the most important. If possible, the system design should allow for error correction before the consequences become serious. Active warnings and alarms are necessary when the system can detect incipient failures in time to take such corrective action. Training is probably next most important after design, but any amount of training cannot compensate for an error-prone design. Preventing exposure to error by guards, locks, or an additional “execute” step can help make sure that the most critical actions are not taken without sufficient forethought. Least effective are written warnings such as posted decals or warning statements in instruction manuals, although many tort lawyers would like us to believe the opposite.


Leave a Reply

About Me

My photo
Cairo, Cairo, Egypt, Egypt
I am the Leader of EME Team.
Powered by Blogger.