Enhancing Human Performance in Process Plant

by Effective Process Design

A. M. Idris, N. S. A. Hadi, N. A. Burok, R Rusli


Abstract—There are many HFE design standards and

guidance documents for the application of Human Factors
Engineering (HFE) to the design and operation of Oil and Gas
projects. However, despite the existence of these guidance and
recommended best practice design documents, HFE is still not
well understood across the industry and application across
projects has been identified as inconsistent. This paper
summarizes and identifies current trends in the use of these
standards, provides examples of where and how these HFE
standards have been used on past facility design projects and
hence suggests criteria for selecting the appropriate HFE
strategy and tasks for future major oil and gas projects.
Improvement strategies for HFE studies are obtained through
a focus group discussion with 15 industrial experts consist of
senior design engineers, operation managers and HFE experts.
Critical areas in the design stage of process involving human
intervention that is related to safety issues has been identified
and discussed. These critical areas are based on the most
potential to cause accidents or incidents based on previous
accidents due to human errors.

Keywords—Human factors, facilities design, oil and gas.


A. M. Idris is with the Department of Chemical Engineering, Centre of
Advanced Process Safety, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Tronoh, Perak
31750, Malaysia (phone: +6019-4433215; e-mail: muz92@me.com).
N. S. A. Hadi is with the Department of Chemical Engineering, Centre of
Advanced Process Safety, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Tronoh, Perak
31750, Malaysia (phone: +6013-4972334; e-mail: nurulabhadi@gmail.com).
N. A. Burok is with the Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Institute of
Chemical and Bioengineering Technology, Lot 1988, Kawasan Perindustrian
Bandar Vendor, Taboh Naning, 78000 Alor Gajah, Melaka, Malaysia (phone:
+6019-2436965; e-mail: norainib@unikl.edu.my).
R. Rusli is with the Department of Chemical Engineering, Centre of
Advanced Process Safety, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Tronoh, Perak
31750, Malaysia (phone: +6013-4972334; e-mail: risza@utp.edu.my).