Typically, the error is a wrong term used to describe operational confusion. Often, the loss is the result of operating in exceptional situations, due to the system complexity ( Perrow, 1984 ). Therefore, an error may better be defined as the absence of a best practice or the failure to apply knowledge that would have prevented a problem.

Example

Errors might result from confusion ...

Prevention

To prevent mistakes, we need to inform the operators about the implications of infringing the operational rules.

Implementation

The challenge about mistake prevention is to figure out the the operators are about to infringe the rules, before the actually do it.

Methods

The recommended architecture ... includes special gates, used to prompt the operators about rule violation, enabling them to learn about the risks and then either confirm or regret.

Updated on 02 Mar 2017.