Human error in maintenance: A case study from China

Abstract Human error is an essential factor that affects the quality and safety of industrial production. To deeply understand the human factors that cause failures in an organization from the perspective of maintenance personnel, we propose an analytical approach combined with Fault Tree Analysis and qualitative analysis and apply this approach to maintenance task failure incidents. These proposed methods are based on human factor classification and the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System. We conduct a case study to prove the effectiveness of applying our approach to the Chinese manufacturing industry. Results enabled the disclosure of the “latent factors” of maintenance incidents, helped improve human error analysis in maintenance incidents and helped to understand the fundamental reasons that affect work reliability and cause maintenance failures. This case study focuses on the impact of critical human factors on organizational effectiveness and operational reliability during maintenance activities.