Proposal for a sustainable framework process for the generation, validation, and application of human reliability assessment within the engineering design lifecycle

Abstract This paper describes the activities that were undertaken during a 12-month study to investigate the application of Human Reliability Assessment (HRA) within a major international systems company. It is envisaged that this paper could act as a framework for other companies wishing to develop sustainable processes for managing the generation and application of HRA alongside the engineering life cycle. The paper addresses two areas of investigation: the ascertainment of the current state of HRA within the Company, and secondly it describes initial work undertaken in developing a process in which the HRA activities may be maintained and developed corporately. The study identified a general lack of confidence in the results of the current HRA activities undertaken by the Company and that these activities differed in scope and detail depending on the customers’ and the teams’ (an organisational grouping within the Company) historical use of HRA. In order to overcome these differences and to foster best practice, the Capability Management Process (CMP) was developed as an overarching framework for HRA activities to be owned, managed and maintained internally by the Company. In addition a baseline process is suggested for HRA activities undertaken during the product development process. It is envisaged that this process will be tailored to allow the utilisation of different HRA techniques to appropriate levels of detail for different teams. Some common HRA techniques are presented together with a description of how they would fit into such a process. The timeliness of the HRA activities is also considered, in that they can be applied at different stages of product development (for example; early in the concept to screen out high-level risks, through to activities leading up to qualification and certification of the product).