Factoring the human into safety : Translating research into practice Executive Summary for :

This report and the work it describes were funded by the HSE. Its contents, including any opinions and/or conclusions expressed, are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect HSE policy. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. The overall aim of the project was to develop practical programmes for the offshore oil and gas industry that can lead to: a) A better understanding of human and organisational factors in safety, b) Continued improvements in safety management and c) An improved 'safety culture' throughout the industry as a whole. In order to achieve this overall objective, three work packages were proposed which build on previous work (see Mearns, Flin, Fleming and Gordon, 1997)). 1. A benchmarking study to identify, analyse and share best practice on human factors safety­ related issues. 2. A systematic analysis of trends in human factors causes of offshore accidents. This information can be used to develop training programmes for CRM and for training accident investigators. The information could also be used in the benchmarking study. 3. The development of a Crew Resource Management (CRM) programme designed for training supervisors and offshore teams in human factors issues. Acknowledgement We wish to thank the sponsoring companies, in particular the S afety Managers on our steering group, the Asset Managers who gave us access, and the OIMs and installation crews who took part in the various aspects of the research programme. The views presented here are those of the authors and should not be taken to represent the position or policy of the sponsoring organisations. Introduction This document outlines the results from Volume 1 of the Joint Industry/ HSE funded report RR 059/2002, which has investigated the feasibility of benchmarking human and organisational factors in offshore safety. Building on an informal benchmarking exercise carried out during the project 'Human and organisational factors in offshore safety' (OTH 97 543), the current study had the following objectives: • Provide a vehicle and stimulus for the participating companies to pursue