Categorization and standardization of accidental risk-criticality levels of human error to develop risk and safety management policy

In addition to increasing mechanization, technology upgradation and process automation, safety enhancement in systems operation is one of the key parameters of productivity improvement. Now, it is an established fact that human error plays a crucial role in accidents and needs to be addressed adequately in risk and safety management. This paper aims at assessing, categorizing and setting standards for human error risk and criticality of system activities. Based on the classification and standardizations of human error rate, consequences of human error and criticality index of errors, different policy decisions for risk and safety management are suggested. The proposed methodology has been demonstrated with reference to the system activities of an underground coal mining system. However developed method can be equally adapted to other systems.