Computer Control and Human Error - Hardcover

Kletz, Trevor

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0884152693 ISBN 13: 9780884152699

Publisher: Gulf Professional Publishing, 1995

Synopsis

Computer Control and Human Error presents accounts of various incidents at computer-controlled plants. These incidents include equipment and software faults; treating the computer as a "black box"; misjudging the way operators respond to the computer; errors in the data entry; failure to inform operators of changes in data or programs; and unauthorized interference with peripheral equipment. The discussion then turns to the use of hazard and operability studies (Hazops) to prevent or reduce errors in computer-controlled plants. The book describes the conventional Hazop as used in the process industry and an overview of the different Chazop frameworks/guidelines suggested by engineers and researchers. It then presents new Chazop methodology which is based on incident analysis. The final chapter presents reasons for failures in computerized systems, each of which is illustrated with an example. Most of the examples did not cause an actual safety problem, simply because they occurred within systems that are not safety-related. Some of these examples appear in the literature; others are from personal experience or from private communications.

About this title

About the Author

Trevor Kletz, OBE, D.Sc., F.Eng. (1922-2013), was a process safety consultant, and published more than a hundred papers and nine books on loss prevention and process safety, including most recently Lessons From Disaster: How Organizations Have No Memory and Accidents Recur and Computer Control and Human Error. He worked thirty-eight years with Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd., where he served as a production manager and safety adviser in the petrochemical division, also holding membership in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Loughborough University, Leicestershire, England. He most recently served as senior visiting research fellow at Loughborough University, and adjunct professor at the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center, Texas A&M University.

Edition details

• Publisher: Gulf Professional Publishing
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0884152693
• ISBN 13: 9780884152699
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 132