Assessment of human error in coal mining using the SHERPA method

Provision of safety for miners is one of the important mining requirements. Hazards and accidents in mines should be eliminated, controlled or minimized. The most common cause of mineral events is the human error factor. In this research, human-caused accidents in Tabas coal mine have been investigated by Sherpa method.

In SHERPA, which is a systematic way of predicting and reduction the human error, the most important human errors that cause accidents are categorized by location or type of activity. The results are presented in the form of job charts.

Out of the 37 identified errors, the highest number of errors was 18 (48.44%) and the functional type, 13 errors were related to Checking (35.13%), 5 errors were the type of communication (51.13%) and 2 errors related to the selection (4. 5%). Then, AHP prioritization was applied and appropriate control strategies were proposed to reduce the risk of errors based on priorities. Human error reduction alternatives include upgrading equipment, education, instructions, and organization.

The results of the study showed that upgrading equipment is the most suitable alternative for reducing human error. This upgrade was considered for the whole mine, and it has been shown that in the absence of resource and cost constraints or time limitation, one can examine the effect of alternatives on each of the main activities for better results, the effects of alternatives on each of the main activities could be examined for better results. In this case, the above method is better able to perform, because instead of upgrading equipment for all sectors, upgrading each section is done according to the more effective alternatives.