The Human Factors Dirty Dozen: Lack of Resources
Introduction The Dirty Dozen is a list of Human Factors that are believed to be contributory to the majority of human error incidents. In this post, I will discuss the "Lack of Resources", which stands out amongst the dirty dozen as the one factor that primarily points to a systemic issue, whereas the rest tend to indicate an individual issue. Definition of Lack of Resources The Lack of Resources to do a particular job could refer to inadequate tools, time, personnel support, or even procedures, that prevent personnel from performing the required task (Muir, 2024). This could lead to personnel not meeting the job requirements or taking shortcuts in the attempt to make things work, to the detriment of job quality or personal safety. Needless to say, this is an undesirable situation, but what can be done about it? Identifying Lack of Resources. Lack of Resources can be especially challenging to identify as a root cause of a safety incident, since the symptom of the problem may ...