Functional resonance in industrial operations: A case study in a manufacturing plant

The increasing complexity of large-scale industrial processes demands for innovative approaches to manage risk and safety. Considering the tendency to automate activities, the role of humans changed over years, generating different types of tight, even symbiotic, inter-relationships. In these coupled interacting scenarios, industrial processes have to be studied focusing jointly on technical and human elements of work, following thus a socio-technical perspective. This paper deals with an application of the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) to analyze socio-technical safety-related issues in manufacturing. A detailed case study related to forging operations clarifies the outcomes of the proposed method, supporting the identification of mitigating actions to reduce risks and increase system's resilience.