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Human error is regarded as a critical factor in catastrophic accidents such as disasters at nuclear power plants, air plane crashes, or derailed trains. Several taxonomies for human errors and methodologies for human reliability analysis (HRA) have been proposed in the literature. Generally, human errors have been modeled on the basis of probabilistic concepts with or without the consideration of cognitive aspects of human behaviors. Modeling of human errors through probabilistic approaches has shown a limitation on quantification of qualitative aspects of human errors and complexity of attributes from circumstances involved. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the methodologies for human reliability analysis and introduce a fuzzy logic approach to the evaluation of human interacting system's reliability. Fuzzy approach could be used to estimate human error effects under ambiguous interacting environments and assist in the design of error free work environments.

This paper briefly discusses the subject of human error in health care systems and presents a comprehensive list of references on the said subject.

A framework for human error modes and effects analysis is presented. The methods of hierarchical task analysis and event tree analysis are introduced as the basic analytical tools, and a novel generic framework for human errors classification is presented as the guidance to identify human errors. Firstly, the process of human error modes and effects analysis is discussed, and the hierarchical task analysis method is introduced briefly. Secondly, the framework for human errors classification is discussed in detail. Thirdly, the multi-states event tree is designed to model the accident scenario. Finally, two scenarios are selected as the examples to illustrate the proposed process of human error modes and effects analysis.

This paper presents facts and figures, directly or indirectly, related to medical equipment reliability and reviews various important aspects, directly or indirectly, concerned with medical equipment reliability including classifications of medical devices/equipment, human error in medical equipment, useful guidelines for reliability and other professionals to improve medical equipment reliability, and medical equipment maintenance. A number of methods considered useful for performing medical equipment reliability analysis are also presented. Useful sources and organizations for obtaining medical equipment failure-related data are listed.

A new dimension of analysis in human reliability models, operator analysis, and its possible mathematical quantification is hereby presented and discussed. Derived from psychometric studies, operator analysis is based on human abilities theory, and facilitates the quantification of the parameters required for a quantitative analysis of human reliability while also reducing the subjectivity in the analysis. Herein, the inclusion of cognitive, social and interpersonal skills puts focus on interpersonal differences and their impact on human performance. The innovative inclusion of Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory on cognitive abilities and Fleishman’s premises on social and interpersonal skills simultaneously addresses several problems of existing human reliability models. Furthermore, it provides a theoretical basis for causal cognitive models of human error with a strong experimental support specifying their interrelationships and dependencies.

Human error is the main root cause of shield tunnel construction (STC) accidents. Human error mitigation and reduction is an important aspect for STC safety management. Human error identification (HEI) is an effective technique in addressing this issue. Since the informatization and automation of construction have transformed workers’ manual-based behaviours into cognitive-based behaviours, this suggests a need for managing human error from a cognitive perspective. This chapter adopts and develops an HEI and analysis approach for safety improvements on the STC site. A cognitive-based HEI framework was developed and implemented for shield machine operation task by integrating the various data resources from the shield machine operation handbook, interviews with the subject matter experts and STC accident reports. Firstly, the shield machine operation task was decomposed into over 100 task steps through the use of hierarchical task analysis (HTA) method. Secondly, the operator activities were identified to describe the task step, and five behaviour modes that summarize the main types of the operator’s task behaviours were obtained. Finally, when combined with the information, decision and action (IDA) cognitive model and current HEI researches, each operator activity was associated with the specific cognitive phases, and the corresponding operator failure modes were proposed. In this research, 45 shield operation accident cases are reviewed under the proposed HEI framework. The major human error issues in the shield machine operation task were explored through a retrospective analysis of these accident cases. This research provides insights into effective cognitive strategies to support the mitigation and reduction of human errors. This can further provide decision support on the improvement of construction safety performance in other construction projects.