only human

摘要

As technology becomes more and more sophisticated, machine errors are fast becoming a thing of the past. Human error, however, is not. Carelessness, complacency and a lack of communication can all lead to potentially catastrophic events. Gary Blenkinsop, quality engineer and winner of this year's IQA National Award, outlines his research into how human factors can be identified and reduced. Human error and human contribution to error have always been apparent throughout history, but this has become more common in recent decades with high profile disasters such as Chernobyl in 1986, the Herald of Free Enterprise in 1987 and the Piper Alpha oil platform explosion in 1988.