Focus Article - Oops, We Did it Again: Reducing Human Error-Induced Truck Unloading Events
Human error is a leading contributing factor to reactive chemistry and loss of containment events. These cases often involve unloading trucks to storage tanks or processing equipment. Driving and connecting hoses, as well as initiating and ending chemical transfers, requires worker actions that must be completed correctly in an ever-changing work environment.
For decades, efforts have been made to reduce human error and unlock the mystery of why good employees make poor decisions that create high-consequence events. Ongoing neuroscience research has identified that critical organizational elements, including work environments, operating procedures, and work schedules, are often not aligned with how our brains work. Using this insight, methods to implement human factor controls to reduce risk can be applied from the boardroom to the shop floor to improve the reliability of operations.