Story Plant recently joined forces with the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) to host a workshop with Story’s Machine/Crane Controllers at its Carlisle Training Centre as part of an RSSB project into understanding human performance, particularly within the Rail industry.
The workshop was led by human factor specialists from RSSB and will feed into the study, which was summarised by the RSSB as:
“Human performance is not perfect and therefore people get things wrong and make mistakes. Errors are at the heart of our ability to adapt to, and master new situations and can be key to learning. However, the Rail industry is safety critical, and the consequences of errors can be significant. For this reason, human performance needs to be managed.
“The project aims to increase understanding of the reasons that errors are made for the train driver, signaller and track staff roles. Human performance will be investigated in the context of the job/workplace that staff are working in and the wider organisational factors. This helps ensure that the underlying causes of human error are identified and managed accordingly.”
Over the course of the day, those involved explored the underlying reasons for errors and worked to identify potential error management solutions, with an extensive list of potential actions and proposals produced. The next phase of the project is planned to take place this month and the final findings of the study will be detailed through a report published by the RSSB.
