Consolidation of the Error Producing Conditions Used in the Human Error Assessment and Reduction Technique (Heart)

Abstract The Human Error Assessment and Reduction Technique (HEART) has been in use for 30 years providing meaningful insight into human error in the nuclear, healthcare, rail, aviation, process and offshore engineering industries. It was created at a time when there was no publicly-accessible Internet, no easily-searched databases and, in some cases, only limited or, largely, non-existent Human Factors information. Since then some Error Producing Conditions (EPCs) have become much easier to quantify and a great deal more information has become available. This has made it possible to consolidate the method so as to confirm, revise and refine some of the EPC multipliers to reflect new findings and to identify new EPCs. In the process, some 25,000 papers have been reviewed and condensed into a number of key findings. In many cases, the data underpinning the EPCs were found to be consistent with the original concepts and multipliers, but there were some cases where revision might be helpful. Our work has highlighted that there are some important gaps in our knowledge. We anticipate that significant advances in the understanding of human error will be achieved, providing there is focused research from all of the human sciences to address these key areas.