What is Human Factors Integration?

There are two meanings of human factors integration:

1. Integrating human factors into the tools, systems and process of a company
2. Integrating human factors into the design of a particular project.

Let’s take these in turn and unpack what each means in practice.

1. Integrating human factors into a company

Rather than address human factors inconsistently, or as an afterthought, this topic should become part of how a company operates, or “part of the way we do things around here”. For this to occur, human factors needs to be embedded into systems and processes – rather than simply a separate activity. Typical processes where human factors should be considered include:

• staffing assessments (e.g., how many people are required to operate the system?)
• personnel/HR (e.g., selection, recruitment and career development)
• competence assurance (e.g., developing and maintaining the knowledge, skills and abilities to operate and maintain the system)
• workplace layout and workstation design
• the design of work/jobs
• the development of procedures
• procurement (e.g., purchasing of new equipment)
• health and safety (e.g., identifying and managing hazards)
• investigation of adverse events
• system safety (e.g., optimising human reliability to reduce system failure).

For the above to be managed successfully, human factors will need to be integrated into the company management system.

Reflection: To assess your company’s maturity, consider how well you address each of the topics on the Key Topics pages. Do you address all of these topics, where relevant? Has each topic been embedded in company process and systems? How would you demonstrate this to an auditor or Regulator?

2. Integrating human factors into a major project

In contrast to the above, this application of human factors integration aims to ensure that human factors forms an integral part of the specification, design, and development of a facility or product. This may be achieved successfully even though human factors hasn’t been fully integrated into the company.

My experience relates to the inclusion of human factors in the design of oil and gas facilities (such as refineries and offshore platforms). However, the process to be followed is similar for other types of projects. Whether you are designing a new hospital (or part of one, such as an operating theatre), a railway station, control room, ship, or aircraft, the principles are similar. This guidance also applies to the modification of existing facilities.

In this context, human factors are not a series of independent issues to be addressed in isolation, or on a piece-meal basis. Neither should human factors be “bolted-on” at the end of a project or design process. Integration occurs when human factors are considered throughout the lifecycle of the project, and across different project teams. The aim is to apply a systematic approach to the identification, tracking, and resolution of human factors issues throughout the design.

“Integrating HF with the design process will assist in ensuring the asset is efficient and effective, meets its intended performance levels and is able to deliver the expected benefits to users and customers” (RISSB, 2018).

The approach for how human factors is considered in a project may be contained within project deliverables or it may be presented in a stand-alone document called a Human Factors Integration Plan (HFIP).

In some countries (or specific industries within countries) Human Factors Integration is referred to as Human Systems Integration (HSI). These both contain a similar set of domains, typically including staffing levels, personnel, training, human factors engineering, system safety, health hazards and survivability. Although they are listed here as separate domains, they are often interrelated.

“Human factors is not a stand-alone activity. Best practice is achieved only when human factors are integrated into the mainstream of systems development” (UK HSE, RR001, 2002)

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