Explaining plainly and pragmatically the impact and benefits of Human Factors on the operational environment is a significant challenge for any complex organisation to manage. Technically competent frontline and supervisory employees in safety critical industries such as Rail want to know how Human Factors interventions can make them better at what they do and more importantly do it safely.

IHF has unique experience designing and developing systems with the needs of human beings in mind. The integration of human needs and system design is typically formalised through a Human-Systems Integration (HSI) programme. With such a plan in place, an institution or organisation can reduce lifecycle costs and increase efficiency, safety and usability. An HSI also pays particular attention to any gaps in human soft skills, such as communication, decision-making and awareness, because these gaps can impair overall system performance. A well-crafted HSI seeks to mitigate such gaps in a systematic and pragmatic manner.

IHF has proven experience designing systems and training for rail companies for several years. We identify the human strengths and vulnerabilities within the context of the systems under observation and use that to tailor to each organisation's specific needs.

Rail

Case Study - Hong Kong MTR: Hong Kong MTR was experiencing abnormal levels of “shunting incidents” across its operations. Utilising the “SHELL” model, IHF identified that procedural accuracy, procedural compliance and non-technical skill failures and deficiencies were responsible for this high level of incidents. By uncovering these issues relating to the interaction of components within the system, IHF indentified the predominant sources of error that were leading to the shunting incidents.