The role of people and human factors in performing process hazard analysis and layers of protection analysis

• The performance of PHA and LOPA studies is subject to human failures influenced by a variety of human factors.
• The quality of PHA and LOPA studies will be impaired if these human factor issues are not addressed.
• Guidelines are provided to address these human factor issues.

Process hazard analysis (PHA) and Layers of Protection Analysis (LOPA) studies address human failures in operating and maintaining processes and the human factors that influence them, amongst other types of failures. People perform PHA and LOPA studies and, therefore, such studies themselves are subject to various possible human failures. Much less attention has been paid to the human factors that influence the performance of PHA and LOPA studies than human factors that influence hazard scenarios. Human failures in the performance of PHA and LOPA studies should be of significant concern to practitioners as such studies are difficult and time-consuming activities that place significant demands on participants, which increases the chance that errors will be made. Human factors such as willingness to rely on the unsubstantiated opinions of others, groupthink, underestimation of the frequencies of low-probability, high-consequence events, and allowing a false sense of accomplishment to distract from implementing study results must be recognized and addressed.This paper identifies and discusses various human factor issues that can influence the quality of PHA and LOPA studies covering preparing for, conducting, recording, documenting, and following-up on studies. Guidelines are provided to help minimize the extent to which these human factor issues may impair study quality.