Staying Alert: Incorporating Human Fatigue in Risk Management

Abstract

This paper addresses the role of human fatigue in workplace safety and risk management. It is well known that fatigue can increase the likelihood of workplace injuries, but the systematic application of this knowledge in safety and risk management is less well known. This paper presents a risk-based method for addressing fatigue in safety and risk management processes. The method incorporates elements of a data-driven fatigue risk management system (FRMS). Specific issues include potential data sources for the FRMS and practical applications within existing safety management systems. Special attention is paid to the fatigue risk assessment, which mirrors a common safety risk assessment and affords systematic control of fatigue-related human error.