ABSTRACT
Human error poses an enterprise-wide source of uncertainty, which poses a “strategic” risk to the organization’s assets, and its performance in the marketplace. This chapter describes the three core elements of that risk, namely assets, hazards, and human beings. Managers want to minimize both the frequency and severity of events, which involve harm to assets. The risk of an event can be characterized as Asset + Hazard + Human → Risk of Harm, and it becomes clearer what to manage—the interfaces, the plus signs. Managers must pay attention to the creation of pathways for harm between assets and hazards, and they must control human touchpoints with both hazards and assets, where human error could trigger a loss of control of hazards. Finally, the chapter describes the six building blocks for effectively managing human performance risk in operations.
