Human Factors; Maintenance, Inspection and Testing

Maintenance, inspection and testing (MIT) are all safety critical activities of which people play a crucial role. The actions and decisions of maintenance personnel should not leave equipment or systems in an unsafe state. MIT is particularly vulnerable to human error due to a number of factors; the complexity of the task, operational pressures and the time of day or night that the activity takes place. Even experienced, highly trained, well-motivated technicians can make simple errors that can cause an incident. Human error in MIT can be predicable, to an extent, and therefore can be identified and managed.