(145c) How Human Factors and Operational Discipline Impact Barrier Management

Building an effective barrier management strategy and safety culture within any organization can often be challenging, especially since a significant aspect to each involves people. We’ve all heard the fundamental elements of a successful safety (and operational) program includes people, process, and plant (or equipment); however, it’s the ‘people’ aspect that always seems to give us problems. After all, people are unique, complex, unpredictable, and come with a wide array of behaviors and risk tolerance. All of these characteristics create a challenge for the organization throughout the risk management process as human error and the potentially negative consequences that may follow have to be a core consideration along the way.

Human factors and operational discipline are not synonymous terms, but have very similar human elements that can strengthen the performance (both safety and operational) of an organization when properly applied in a management system. This presentation will review the fundamental concepts of human (and organizational) factors and show how they relate to operational discipline in an effective barrier management plan or strategy.