Human and Organisational Factors

Responsible:

Action areas:

  • Explore relevant research, including medical imaging
  • Review best practices (guidance/regulations/rules) internationally
  • Discuss the possibility of quantifying human factors and including them in the reliability assessment
  • Discuss the best practices for the transfer of HF knowledge to the industry
  • Prepare ICNDT Guides

News:

  • 2nd meeting, May 11 2022

The second meeting took place on 11 May 2022 (online) with 4 participants. The team discussed the structure and style of the guidelines to be produced. It was agreed to initially focus on the general guidelines without a specific reference to a particular industry or method, though some examples of human factors from safety critical industries such as nuclear and aerospace may be given to illustrate some of the concepts discussed. Subsequently, differences and details specific to important industries and methods will be noted later in separate sections or documents. Once a guideline draft is produced, it is suggested that a survey is shared amongst industry to solicit their feedback about the relevance, practicality, and usefulness of the some of the recommendations. A couple of existing guidelines shared with members through OneDrive are deemed a good starting point to draft the guidelines for Human Factors. The members of the group are invited to research guideline structure (within NDT and beyond) in terms of content, style, readability, and structure to be discussed in the next meeting. It is proposed that experienced members of the group present the state of the art of Human Factors in their respective industries to establish common features and identify new directions for future collaboration, e.g., Martin Wall on Oil & Gas, Marija Bertovic on NDT in general, Bernard McGrath on PANI 3 and beyond. Finally, there was a pertinent discussion on the relevance of producing the guideline documents. It was proposed that a checklist and independent auditing rating (which comprises POD and Human factors) are used to assess the service reliability of industries in the sector.

  • 1st meeting, March 9 2022

The ICNDT Human Factors (HF) subgroup met on March 9 2022 for the first time to discuss aims and objectives of the group and list of activities. Seven members were present. The chief task of the sub-group is to develop general guidelines on Human Factors in the field of NDT. The guidelines are expected to include appraised citations of previous published works. It was deemed that the existing guidelines such as the UK HSE guidelines, UK HOIS, US NRC and others might be a good starting point. Given that these guidelines are primarily aimed for the industry, specific guidelines on major and widely used techniques should also be provided. One key feature is that it must be easy to use to gain any traction with industry. In order to enrich the discussion and benefit from the valuable contribution of experts in the field, it was agreed to invite guest speakers to present their insights into the field of Human Factors and the lessons that have been learnt. Another aspect that this group will also address is the modelling of Human Factors using tools such as POD and the evaluation of human factors in NDE 4.0 which remains largely a new area of research. We are fortunate that the group members are drawn from industry, academia, and research institutions from across the globe. We are also looking to expand the group to include members from Australia. It was initially agreed to meet every two months on Wednesdays at 13:00 GMT. Next meeting will be held on May 11th.