CIEHF whitepaper highlights human factors in barrier management

Generally seen as a threat, human error is frequently the most common risk facing businesses, which is why barriers are initially put in place to try and reduce these types of occurrences. As illustrated in CIEHF's recent whitepaper, errors due to failures in attention, perception, memory and logic may be seen to be inevitable and often unavoidable, as humans will always be assumed to make mistakes. This is why barriers are thought to be the most effective way to heighten the means of defence; however, the human element remains to be factored in.

Although humans pose the most threat to businesses, according to the whitepaper people are the single most important factor in an approach to barrier management. This is because the need for employees to perform certain barrier functions is still necessary in order to ensure controls that are in place are being as effective as possible. Technological barriers may be equipped to pick up on miscalculations and wrongly input data, but will not, however, have the ability to apply common sense and assess the situation in a similar manner as humans. The problem industries may have, therefore, is a confused relationship between humans and robotics as it can be a struggle to determine with whom the main responsibility lies.

Steve Barraclough, CEO of the Charted Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors (CIEHF), says: "The concept of barrier management is central and, although it is currently applied with the most rigour in the oil, gas and rail industry, the approach can be useful to almost any sector with the potential for significant loss. Industries do need to keep in mind the importance of human factors when applying a defence strategy, as technology on its own will not protect against all errors."

For more information, please download the CIEHF's free "Human Factors in Barrier Management' whitepaper.