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 appear to point towards a problem with the individual involved. For instance, in a scenario where an aircraft was rejected as unfit for flight by aircrew due to a major maintenance oversight during pre-flight, it is easy to categorise it as individual error, and attempt to resolve the problem by re-training the involved crew. It is only through the use of root cause analysis tools such as the "five whys" investigation technique or the fishbone diagram that less immediately apparent root causes, like Lack of Resources, can be identified as the culprit.
Systemic problems demand systemic solutions
Unlike many of the Dirty Dozen human factors, Lack of Resources cannot be resolved by training. Instead, the systemic issue must be addressed: inadequate tools must be upgraded and made available in sufficient numbers, inadequate procedures must be reviewed, and unrealistic schedules will need to be replanned to give personnel sufficient time to do their jobs right. Systemic solutions are among the most challenging to design and arduous to implement, but applying an inappropriate solution would at best be an abortive effort that does not solve the problem, and the same human errors are likely to recur.
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