Human Factors Modelling Approach: Application to a Safety Device Supporting Crane Operations in Major Hazard Industries

Abstract

The European Directive on Safety and Health at Work and the following normatives have the scope to provide high levels of health and safety at work, based on some general principles managing activities and including the risk assessment to continuously improve processes and workplaces. However, the working area changes and brings new risks and challenges for workers. Several of them are associated with new technologies, which determine complex human–machine interactions, leading to an increased mental and emotional strain. To reduce these emerging risks, their understanding and assessment are important. Although great efforts have already been made, there is still a lack of conceptual frameworks for analytically assessing human–machine interaction. This paper proposes a systematic approach that, beyond including the classification in domains to explain the complexity of the human–machine interaction, accounts for the information processing of the human brain. Its validation is shown in a major accident hazard industry where a smart safety device supporting crane related operations is used. The investigation is based on the construction of a questionnaire for the collection of answers about the feeling of crane operators when using the device and the evaluation of the Cronbach’s alpha to measure of the reliability of the assessment.