By – Mohammadsuhel Thakor

What is HFE ???

HFE is a “sociotechnical”
approach to systems
design, it is a
multidisciplinary
approach to engineering
that focuses on the
integration of the five
elements illustrated on
the Human Factors
Engineering ‘star’.

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Why HFE is applied to the design of work
systems, workplaces and products???
 To reduce risk to health, personal and process safety and the
environment

 To eliminate, reduce the likelihood or mitigate the

consequences of human error

 To improve human efficiency and productivity, thereby

enhancing operational performance

 To improve user acceptance of new facilities.

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Benefits of proper integration of HFE in
projects
 Reduction in CAPEX by contributing to more efficient design
and avoiding the need for expensive changes and/or re-work
late in design.
 Reducing the need for re-work or change during or after
construction.
 Reduction in life cycle costs of operating and maintaining
facilities (OPEX).
 Improvements in HSE performance, and reduced operational
HSE risk.
 Enhanced user commitment (‘buy in’) often resulting in faster
approval cycles.

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HFE in the project lifecycle

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Overview of HFE in the project lifecycle

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Stage I: HFE screening (SELECT)
 conducted early in project lifecycle - preferably before FEED
 method - Desktop review or a structured workshop
 method used depends on the complexity of the project
 assessment of HFE complexity done by the PM & other
stakeholders based on -
 the degree of change or novelty being introduced, including the use of
automation
 the criticality of the facilities to be developed (to process or personal safety,
environmental control, or production)
 the operational context such as geographical location, climatic conditions,
and hazards inherent to the operation
 output of the HFE Screening will be either:
 A minuted record that there is no value to be added by applying HFE OR
 An HFE Strategy for the project

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Stage I: HFE screening cont.… Applying the
screening tool –
 team first decides the level at which to apply the tool:
 An overall process area or processing unit
 Individual equipment items
 Operations
 team systematically reviews each item against the following
six screening factors:
1. task complexity
2. unit criticality
3. task frequency
4. novelty
5. design scope
6. known problems
 for each factor, the team should agree a rating based on
consideration of the guide words
 use the results as the basis for preparing the HFE Strategy
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Stage I: HFE screening cont.…HFE Strategy:
 summaries the key HFE risks, issues and opportunities
identified in the screening.
 identify the HFE-specific standards or technical guidance to be
included in the project technical baseline
 project HFE strategy for projects with major accident hazard
potential shall identify applicable activities from below -
1. Working Environment Health Risk Assessment (WEHRA)
2. Valve Criticality Analysis (VCA)
3. Vendor package screening
4. Task Requirements Analysis (TRA)
5. Human Machine Interface (HRI) requirements analysis
6. Control room requirements analysis
7. Control system and alarm management analysis
8. Safety critical task inventory
9. Critical task analysis
10. Human error ALARP demonstration.
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Stage II: HFE design Analysis (DEFINE)

Involves five steps

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Stage III: HFE validation (EXECUTE)

HFE design analysis

(complete)

HFE design validation

HFE plan for

construction &
commissioning

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Stage IV: support to start-up

HFE support for pre start-up audit

• For projects where high risks associated with HFE are

identified, an HFE authorized person should be included in
pre start-up audits and inspections.

HFE close-out review

• Confirmation that there are no outstanding HFE issues which

need to be resolved prior to start-up.
• Identification of lessons learned to improve the application
of HFE in future projects
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Stage V: operational feedback
the level of operability and maintainability
achieved

HFE issues identified over the operational period

incidents, near misses review to check HFE aspects

lessons to be fed back to company and contractor

identification of HFE value and comparison with

similar projects

Not more than one year after start-up, a meeting should be organized to review
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આભાર ‫شكرا‬

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