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Latest insights...

HSE Human Factors Delivery Guide for COMAH sites 2023: What’s new?

The HSE released a new Human Factors Delivery Guide for COMAH sites in December 2023. However, there was no briefing...
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  • HUMAN FACTORS, MANAGEMENT, Process Industries

Revisiting the Swimlane Method: A Healthcare Case Study to Improve Patient Safety

Lydea’s latest blog explores how Swimlane could be applied in the healthcare industry. By mapping out the sequence of events,...
Read more
  • Beginner, Healthcare, HUMAN FACTORS, Incident Investigation, SHERPA Software
Tackling Procedural Non-Compliance in the Workplace

Tackling Procedural Non-Compliance in the Workplace: Insights and Solutions

Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) are essential, but why do operators deviate from them? Our Managing Director, David Embrey, explores how...
Read more
  • Beginner, HUMAN FACTORS, Procedures, Process Industries, SCTA, SHERPA Software, Task Analysis

Checking, checks, second checks, double checks and independent checks

In this deep dive, we explore the critical role of checking in detecting and correcting errors, especially in safety-critical industries....
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  • Healthcare, Human Error, HUMAN FACTORS, Procedures, Process Industries, SCTA
Human Factors Regulations - worker at a power plant

Human Factors Regulations in Singapore: A comparison with the UK

In 2017, Singapore introduced the Safety Case Regime under the Workplace Safety and Health (Major Hazards Installations) Regulations, marking a...
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  • Beginner, Human Error, HUMAN FACTORS, Process Industries, SCTA
Human Performance Guidance for Pharmaceutical Manufacturing

Human Performance Guidance for Pharmaceutical Manufacturing: A Regulatory Innovation?

In the pharmaceutical sector, human error isn’t just a “mistake”—it can affect patient safety, production and quality....
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  • Beginner, Human Error, HUMAN FACTORS, Pharma

Human Factors for Biological Containment Labs

Biological containment labs handle some of the most dangerous pathogens, yet human error remains a critical risk factor in their...
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  • Beginner, Human Error, HUMAN FACTORS, Pharma, SCTA

On Crafting Effective and Safe Procedures 

In safety-critical industries, having a procedure isn’t enough—it needs to be both accurate and user-friendly. A well-crafted procedure can enhance...
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  • Competency, HUMAN FACTORS, Intermediate, Pharma, Power Generation, Procedures, Process Industries, SCTA, SHERPA Software, TRAINING
Worker turning valve on gas plant pipeline

Failure Modes and Mechanisms in Safety Critical Task Analysis (SCTA) 

In the realm of safety critical tasks industries, identifying both failure modes and mechanisms is essential for effective risk management...
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  • Beginner, HUMAN FACTORS, Mining, Pharma, Power Generation, Process Industries, SCTA

The Psychology Behind Alarm Response: Insights from Human Factors

Alarm systems are vital to process control, but poorly designed alarms can compromise operator performance. We explore the complexities of...
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  • HF4 Design, HUMAN FACTORS, Intermediate, Power Generation, Process Industries, SHERPA Software

Understanding the HSE’s Human Factors Delivery Guide for COMAH Sites: A Quick Overview for Beginners 

Want to learn more about the 6 topic areas in the HSE’s HF COMAH Delivery Guide? Here, we give a...
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  • Beginner, HUMAN FACTORS, Process Industries, TRAINING

Human Factors GATEWAY Approach: Leveraging SCTA Outputs to Identify HF Issues in Related Tasks

This blog introduces the Human Factors GATEWAY (Generic Audit Tool Exercise to Widen and Accelerate Yield) approach. This extends Safety...
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  • Advanced, MANAGEMENT, Process Industries, SCTA

Near Miss Management: Formative ideas for a book chapter

I’ve been lucky enough to be invited to contribute a chapter in a book about Near Miss Management. I’ll mainly...
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  • Advanced, Incident Investigation, Process Industries

Incident Investigation: Swimlanes & Sequentially Timed Events Plotting (STEP)

Lydea’s latest blog uncovers Swimlane diagrams as a powerful tool for incident investigation. Featuring a detailed case study on the...
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  • Human Error, Incident Investigation, Intermediate, Process Industries, Research, SHERPA Software, Task Analysis
Pharama manufacturing.

CAPA Culture and systems: Organisational learning in pharmaceutical manufacture

At HRA, we have found that reporting culture isn't quite as healthy as we might hope, both in healthcare and...
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  • Beginner, CAPA, Culture, Human Error, MANAGEMENT, Medical Devices, Pharma

SYSTEMS Critical Task Analysis (SCTA): A Case Study for Quality Improvement (QI)

This is our latest blog post on SYSTEMS Critical Task Analysis (SCTA) and how it can enhance Quality Improvement (QI)....
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  • Beginner, Pharma, SCTA

SCTA Workflow: Where the rubber hits the Human Factors Roadmap

Following her last blog, Lydea shows how the SCTA process can be used as a way to implement the HF...
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  • Beginner, Human Error, HUMAN FACTORS, MANAGEMENT, Power Generation, Process Industries, SCTA, Task Analysis
Critical Competences: Road tanker offloading

Critical Competences: SCTA & risk-informed competence standards

Safety Critical Task Analysis (SCTA) is a well-established process in the UK onshore and offshore petrochemical and oil and gas...
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  • Competency, Intermediate, MANAGEMENT, Process Industries, SCTA, SHERPA Software

SHERPA: Innovative Software for HFI in Defence (Part 1)

Mary Goode recently joined HRA to develop and manage our accounts in the Defence sector. Mary has worked in Defence...
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  • Defence, SHERPA Software, Task Analysis

In Praise of Positive PIFs (Performance Influencing Factors) in Human Factors Risk Assessments

Performance Influencing Factors (PIFs) are factors that can increase or decrease the likelihood of human error occurring. Negative PIFs increase...
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  • Advanced, Human Error, SCTA

Navigating the Human Factors Roadmap: Part 1

In this blog series, Lydea describes the steps of the HF Roadmap and how the SCTA process aligns with the...
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  • Beginner, HUMAN FACTORS, Process Industries, SCTA

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Our latest blogs...

HSE Human Factors Delivery Guide for COMAH sites 2023: What’s new?

The HSE released a new Human Factors Delivery Guide for COMAH sites in December 2023. However, there was no briefing...
Read more
  • HUMAN FACTORS, MANAGEMENT, Process Industries

Revisiting the Swimlane Method: A Healthcare Case Study to Improve Patient Safety

Lydea’s latest blog explores how Swimlane could be applied in the healthcare industry. By mapping out the sequence of events,...
Read more
  • Beginner, Healthcare, HUMAN FACTORS, Incident Investigation, SHERPA Software
Tackling Procedural Non-Compliance in the Workplace

Tackling Procedural Non-Compliance in the Workplace: Insights and Solutions

Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) are essential, but why do operators deviate from them? Our Managing Director, David Embrey, explores how...
Read more
  • Beginner, HUMAN FACTORS, Procedures, Process Industries, SCTA, SHERPA Software, Task Analysis

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