scope:

The safety and availability of a technical system or the quality of a product can be decisively affected by human actions in the management, control and maintenance of technical processes. For a comprehensive analysis of a technical system, it is therefore important not to limit oneself exclusively to the technical components but to take human influence into consideration. This is taken into account by regarding a technical system as a man-machine system (MMS) (see VDI 4006 Part 1; [1]).

Here, the task of the HRA is

• to analyse human actions qualitatively and to identify possible erroneous actions,

• to identify points of weakness and thus create the conditions for appropriate remedial measures,

• to quantify the reliability of human action so as to be able to estimate among other things the effectiveness of remedial measures and counter measures (for example, a gain in safety) within the overall system.

The aim of the HRA is thus to make an estimate of human reliability and to create an improvement in the conditions required for reliable human action in the technical system, and thus ultimately even to increase the availability of the technical system by reducing the potential for error of the human being within the overall system.

The reliability of the individual is thus always seen in relation to the technical system ("man as system component"); the aspect of human culpability is not a concern of the HRA [2].