Human error
A human error (hereinafter, the Error) is any unintentional action or inaction of a human being working on a system that can potentially degrade this system. In other words, the Error can be defined as an individual's deviation from acceptable or desirable practice which culminates in undesirable or unexpected results. Intentional actions or inactions that can potentially degrade the system are called violations.
The Error is one of the many contributing causes of risk events and a significant cause of disasters and accidents in industries such as nuclear power, aviation, space exploration, and medicine. Prevention of the Errors and/or their impact is a major contributor to reliability and safety of complex systems. Studies of human factors and ergonomics that allow for reduction of the Errors are the focus of several disciplines such as crew resource management and maintenance resource management.
Types
Similarly to human performance, the Errors can be categorized in many ways. Generally speaking, while making an Error, a human being is performing either:
Errors vs unsafe acts
- Main wikipage: Unsafe act
An unsafe act can be defined as the Error that hasn't been corrected timely within the same set of enterprise efforts. Further, unsafe acts may lead to incidents, and those may cause accidents, including fatal accidents. One proportion for those unsafe acts that led to the catastrophes is known as the 300-29-1 Rule:
| Type | Description | Number |
|---|---|---|
| Unsafe act | Those Errors that haven't been corrected properly | 300 |
| Incidents | Those unsafe events that lead to minor failures | 29 |
| Accidents | Those incidents that lead to fatal accidents or catastrophes | 1 |
