2025 AIChE Spring Meeting & 21st GCPS Short Courses

Human error is widely acknowledged as the major cause of quality, production, and safety risks in many industries.  This course explains the underlying reasons why humans make mistakes and how you can prevent these mistakes with engineering solutions and with administrative solutions. Although it is unlikely that human error will ever be completely prevented, there is growing recognition that many human performance problems stem from a failure within organizations to develop an effective policy for managing human reliability.

The course will provide hands-on experience of practical error reduction techniques, using real-life case studies. You will also gain an understanding of the underlying causes of human error and how to reduce its occurrence by changing the culture of the organization and changing the design of the processes. Workshops are used throughout the course to illustrate concepts and to demonstrate human error analysis applications.

What You Will Learn:

•   Why human error is a factor in all accidents

•   Why humans make mistakes

•   The lower bounds possible when reducing baseline human error rates and when reducing dependent human error probability

•   Proven  error  prevention  techniques  –  engineering  features  or  options  to  reduce  or compensate for human error and administrative ways to reduce human error probability

•   How to analyze & identify human errors and the conditions and situations that cause them

Take Home:

•   Comprehensive course notebook containing

-  Checklists and worksheets for several human error analysis techniques

-  Industry examples

•   Certificate of Completion

•   0.7 CEUs & 0.7 COCs

Typical Course Candidates:

•   Managers - Operations, Safety, and Executive; and Production Supervisors

•   Training Managers

•   Engineers - Process, Safety, and Mechanical

•   PSM Coordinators and Managers

•   PHA (hazard review) Leaders and Incident Investigators

Course Outline

Day 1 (9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.)

Introduction to Human Error

•   Learning objectives and goals of human error prevention

•   What is human error and human error analysis?

Understanding Human Error:

•   Errors and their relationship to loss events

•   Which is most important: Management system deficiencies or personal behavior?

Agenda and Description: 

1. Introduction to BESS Hazards, Codes and Standards (1.5 hours)
   
   1. This module will serve as the foundation of the workshop, providing an in-depth understanding of BESS hazards, codes and standards. Participants will learn about the potential risks associated with BESS and the relevant industry guidelines and regulations.
2. Testing of Lithium-Ion Batteries and Certification (1.5 hours)
   
   1. In this module, we will delve into the crucial topic of testing and certification for lithium-ion batteries used in BESS. Participants will gain insights into the testing procedures, safety considerations, and industry certifications that ensure the reliability and safety of BESS components.
3. CFD Modeling of Gas Dispersion and Explosion Prevention System Design (1.5 hours)
   
   1. This module will introduce computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling for analyzing gas dispersion and designing effective explosion prevention systems. Practical techniques for mitigating explosion risks in BESS facilities will be explored. As part of this module, participants can interact with a tabletop setup of a gas flow experiment which demonstrates the impact of supply/exhaust locations as a hands-on visualization of explosion prevention system effectiveness. 
4. Risk Assessment and Design Basis Analysis (1.5 hours)
   
   1. The final module will focus on risk assessment methodologies specific to BESS and the process of developing design basis analysis. Participants will learn how to identify, assess and mitigate risks in BESS projects, with practical examples and case studies.
5. Case Studies and General Discussion (1 hour)
   
   1. Additional case studies including BESS siting, design, fire and explosion events are discussed.

Per CCPS, “PSKM is a system for capturing, organizing, maintaining and providing the right process safety knowledge to the right people at the right time to improve process safety in an organization.” PSKM is the evolution of the process knowledge management element as introduced by CCPS in the book Guidelines for Process Safety Knowledge Management. This short course provides an overview of PSKM, connection of PSKM to the RBPS element of process knowledge management, and general understanding of the roles, responsibilities, as well as tools used to develop, implement, maintain, and improve PSKM systems.

Proposed agenda for course: