Cooperative Workshops on Human Factors in Offshore Operations - Providing Practical Lifecycle Solutions to Reduce Incidents and Improve Safety, Quality and Reliability
Authors: Holdsworth Rodger D. , Smith Charles E. 
Published: October 2008

It has been long established that over 80 percent of offshore accidents and injuries is attributed to human error. To significantly reduce offshore incidents a concerted effort by industry, government, certification and academic bodies is needed to properly integrate and apply human factors in the offshore industry.

The 2nd International Workshop on Human Factors in Offshore Operations, sponsored by both industry and regulatory agencies, was recently held in Houston, Texas to ddresses this issue. This paper provides an overview of the important issues learned and discussed at the workshop. The workshop was one of the most significant events held by the offshore community to reduce incidents and improve offshore safety, quality and reliability. The Workshop was designed to establish practical solutions to demystify human factors, identify and provide the tools industry needs to midigate human factor related incidents.

This paper applies to offshore incident investigation programs, design of both new and existing facilities, operations work force, management systems, human behavior programs and is of interest to Industry leaders responsible for safety in the offshore environment.

The 2nd International Workshop on Human Factors in Offshore Operations overview includes discussion on:Inclusion of Human Factors in Incident InvestigationReduction of Human Error in New SystemsReduction of Human Error in Existing SystemsSolving Human Factor Issues as Applied to the Work ForceIntegration of Human Factors in Management SystemsEffective Application of Behavioral Based processes in Offshore Operations

Where human factors have been applied offshore, significant improvement has been seen with relatively little cost to implement. This paper gives companies who operate in the offshore industry insight on the human factors tools, resources and guidelines that are available to improve their safety, reliability and economic performance.

1.0 Introduction

Safety and health is paramount to offshore operations. Each year new programs such as the Safety Case Program in the North Sea, the Safety and Environmental Management program in the United States and other safety initiatives are introduced and continuously evaluated to reduce risk and improve safety performance. Despite these efforts incidents still occur.

As a result of a number of studies and independent analysis of incidents conducted in the 1980's and 1990's, it was found that greater than 80 percent of incidents are a result of human errors occurring during operations. These findings brought the offshore industry, regulators, certification agencies and institutes together in 1996 to find a means to eliminate human factors related incidents. This first cooperative workshop helped to establish the current use of human factors in the Management of Safety and Environmental Hazards for Offshore Operations and Facilities Workshop. The goal of this workshop was to define the state of the art of human factors and behavioral safety to reduce the likelihood of offshore incidents, on the job injuries, environmental hazards, and improve safety, quality, and reliability during the life cycle of an offshore facility. The primary topics of the workshop included facility design, construction, operation, codes and standards, management systems and science.