Download our comprehensive guide and introduction to Performance Influencing Factors by completing the form, or, learn how to conduct a PIF assessment and how HRA can support your organisation below.
Performance Influencing Factors (PIFs) are used to understand and manage human reliability by identifying factors that affect the likelihood of human error or success. In proactive risk assessments, PIFs help reduce the potential for errors, such as avoiding confusion between unlabeled tanks. They also assist in incident investigations by identifying contributing factors, like inadequate task time or complex equipment.
PIFs support workload and fatigue modeling and guide design requirements, ensuring critical controls are accessible.
Additionally, PIFs offer insights into achieving excellence, helping teams or individuals improve performance by recognizing key factors that drive success across different contexts.
Performance Influencing Factors (PIFs) are used to understand and manage human reliability by identifying factors that affect the likelihood of human error or success. In proactive risk assessments, PIFs help reduce the potential for errors, such as avoiding confusion between unlabeled tanks. They also assist in incident investigations by identifying contributing factors, like inadequate task time or complex equipment.
PIFs support workload and fatigue modeling and guide design requirements, ensuring critical controls are accessible.
Additionally, PIFs offer insights into achieving excellence, helping teams or individuals improve performance by recognizing key factors that drive success across different contexts.
A PIF assessment can range from simple surveys to detailed analyses. Initially, a task analysis is conducted to identify critical failures, followed by a PIF assessment to determine factors affecting failure likelihood. PIFs are analyzed through interviews, workshops, or task observations.
Approaches can be top-down, using a predefined list of PIFs, or bottom-up, deriving factors from data. Often, a combination of both is used to create a comprehensive view of influences on system performance.
A PIF assessment can range from simple surveys to detailed analyses. Initially, a task analysis is conducted to identify critical failures, followed by a PIF assessment to determine factors affecting failure likelihood. PIFs are analyzed through interviews, workshops, or task observations.
Approaches can be top-down, using a predefined list of PIFs, or bottom-up, deriving factors from data. Often, a combination of both is used to create a comprehensive view of influences on system performance.
Performance Influencing Factors (PIFs) can be categorized into three types. Generic PIFs have broad impacts across the system, such as organizational culture or fatigue management policies. Task-specific PIFs relate to individual tasks, like hard-to-follow procedures or unlabeled connections. Failure-specific PIFs address specific error types, where, for example, missing steps on a checklist increase the likelihood of omissions, or inadequate training heightens the risk of mistakes.
These categories help in identifying and addressing factors that influence performance and reliability at different levels within a system.
Some Performance Influencing Factors (PIFs) are static, e.g. if something is not labelled then it’ll probably remain so until fixed.
In contrast, some Performance Influencing Factors (PIFs) are dynamic, e.g. we are often less alert in the early hours of the morning, but our alertness levels can fluctuate throughout the day.
Some more dynamic PIFs could change with the weather and the seasons, other PIFs could fluctuate on a much shorter time frame.
Performance Influencing Factors (PIFs) are a fundamental part of the SHERPA philosophy. The SHERPA Software allows a task or system to be broken down into constituent elements, for critical consequences and performance dimensions to be considered, and a tabular analysis to identify and explore the role of different PIFs in detail. More specifically:
Performance Influencing Factors (PIFs) are a fundamental part of the SHERPA philosophy. The SHERPA Software allows a task or system to be broken down into constituent elements, for critical consequences and performance dimensions to be considered, and a tabular analysis to identify and explore the role of different PIFs in detail. More specifically:
Performance Influencing Factors (PIFs) play a large role in how we think about human and system performance. We have tools and methodologies to help understand this area and run training courses for others. Our main training courses can be found on the Human Reliability Academy but we can also support new areas of human and system performance.
Visit the Human Reliability Academy here.
Our expert consultants have many years of experience working with safety critical organizations and other clients interested in improving performance and reducing critical risks.
Visit our consultancy pages to see some of the services we offer and get in touch to discuss your requirements.
Performance Influencing Factors (PIFs) play a large role in how we think about human and system performance. We have tools and methodologies to help understand this area and run training courses for others. Our main training courses can be found on the Human Reliability Academy but we can also support new areas of human and system performance.
Visit the Human Reliability Academy here.
Our expert consultants have many years of experience working with safety critical organizations and other clients interested in improving performance and reducing critical risks.
Visit our consultancy pages to see some of the services we offer and get in touch to discuss your requirements.
Intrigued to learn more? Download our comprehensive guide on Performance Influencing Factors by completing the form.
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