- Preface

For over 40 years, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AICHE) has been
involved with process safety and loss prevention in the chemical, petrochemical,
hydrocarbon processing and related industries. AICHE publications are information
resources for chemical engineers and other professionals to better understand the
causes of process incidents and offer ways to prevent them. The Center for Chemi-
cal Process Safety (CCPS), a directorate of AICHE, was established in 1985 to de-
velop and disseminate information for use in promoting the safe operation of chem-
ical facilities and processes with the objective of preventing chemical process
incidents. CCPS activities are supported by the funding and technical expertise of
over 80 corporations. Several government agencies and nonprofit and academic in-
stitutions also participate in CCPS endeavors.
CCPS established a multifaceted program to address the need for process safety
technology and management systems to reduce potential exposures from chemical
process incidents to the public, the environment, and personnel and facilities. These
programs are supported by the direction of its advisory and management boards.
Over the past several years, CCPS has extended its publication program to in-
clude a Concept series of books. These books are focused on more specific topics
than the longer, more comprehensive Guidelines series and are intended to comple-
ment them-this book is a member of the Concept series. With the issuance of this
title, CCPS has published over 80 books.
In 1989, CCPS published the landmark Guidelines for the Technical Manage-
ment of Chemical Process Safety. This was followed in 1992 by Plant Guidelines
for Technical Management of Process Safety which presented information on how
to effectively implement, at a plant level, the various components of process safety
management systems.
In 1994 CCPS produced two publications related to human factors. The first,
Human Factors in Process Safety Management, provides guidance on how human
factors considerations are applied to key elements of process safety management
systems. The second book, Guidelines for Preventing Human Error in Process
Safety, provides the underlying principles and theories of the science of human fac-
tors, as well as their application to process safety and to the technical management
of process safety systems.
This book, Human Factors Methods for Improving Performance in the Process
Industries, is the result of the desire of the CCPS sponsoring companies to provide
guidance for plant engineering staff on specific, effective, practical techniques and
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tools that can be applied to improve process safety-it is not geared towards the
specialist. The main focus of this book is on human factors issues relating to the
avoidance of major process incidents; however, ergonomic considerations can con-
tribute to and play a role in these incidents and are therefore also addressed.
This book provides an overview of how a human factors program can be estab-
lished and implemented. The main content is contained in a series of summaries on
particular human factors topics that a plant engineer can apply without reading the
entire book. Each summary contains a short introduction to the topic, a description
of the tools available, an example with graphics and flowcharts, as needed, and ref-
erences for further reading. It is hoped that this book will take the specialist subject
of human factors and present it in practical terms that any engineer can apply to ul-
timately improve process safety performance.