Faid^®Safe - overview

Faid^®Safe is a fatigue safety system that is built on three levels of protection and designed so that all industrial organisations can establish adequacy of current and future controls that protect against inherent fatigue hazards.

Faid^®Safe is based on a holistic diagnosis of operational, capacity and cultural exposures, coupled with the development of primary, secondary and tertiary safeguards.

Faid^®Safe is offered as the global benchmark for services assisting the fatigue safe systems market and recognises that irespective of the support tools that are adopted, a comprehensive Risk Engineering based fatigue safe system is required in order to adequately manage fatigue risks.

Faid^®Safe has been developed and is being validated by the idZRE Alliance and their clients.

Developments In Fatigue Safe Systems

Fatigue and its impact on decision making is a global issue that has emerged with the extended hours of work required to service our 24/7 society. Work-related fatigue and consequent changes in alertness, reaction time, decision making and communication are all major risks for shift workers.

According to the The Centre for Sleep Research, the University of South Australia, the major cause of the increased levels of fatigue in the workplace, which have been experienced over the last few decades, is the loss of sleep which has occurred with changing economic and social patterns. For example, many workers involved in the Transport Industry (road, rail, air, sea) are now required to work longer, more flexible hours at reduced staffing levels. This, in conjunction with increasing task demands and social pressures has resulted in significant reductions in the quality and duration of sleep.

In recent years, a number of industrial inquiries have given focus and impetus to the process of finding and implementing solutions to the risks posed by fatigue in transport and other operational business environments.

Are organisations Fatigue Safe?

The spotlight on fatigue as a significant cause of accidents and incidents in a broad range of industries and activities is becoming more general and emotional. The list of industries affected by fatigue is endless – road transport, aviation, ferries, passenger rail, sea borne cargo, mining, healthcare…to name but a few!

The clamor of society to “fix the fatigue problem” has led many organisations to become proactive about occupational fatigue. Awareness and training programs which assist workers to better understand and manage their personal levels of fatigue have been developed and are being delivered; consultative committees are being formed to oversee fatigue management programs; fatigue models are being used to objectively assess fatigue risk; “fatigue safe” rosters are being developed; fatigue risk management policies and procedures are being developed; organisation wide systems which monitor compliance of actual hours of work with organisational safety targets and the minimum requirements of occupational health and safety legislation are being implemented.

Even with all this activity underway, company boards, legislators, regulators and unions are still asking the question: “Are our organisations fatigue safe? Are the actions we are taking sufficient to protect our people and our organisation against exposure to the significant losses which arise whenever there is an accident or incident which has fatigue as a contributing or root cause?”

Sleep factor is most significant

Over the last decade an extensive body of research has confirmed that of all the factors that contribute to fatigue the amount and quality of sleep that people achieve is the most significant factor. With this knowledge, one of the leading forms of protection has been to educate workers on how they can better manage their sleep and fatigue. However, even with greater awareness of how to manage personal fatigue, fatigue cannot be eliminated.

The challenge for organisations has been to protect themselves against fatigue risk at whatever level of fatigue experienced by individuals. For example, contingency plans are required for workers performing safety critical tasks if health or family pressures lead to high levels of personal fatigue.

Over the last decade an extensive body of research has confirmed that of all the factors that contribute to fatigue - the amount and quality of sleep that people achieve is the most significant factor.

High Integrity Multiple Protection Levels

With the accumulation of experience gained from the endeavours of organisations to develop and implement diverse controls to protect themselves against fatigue risk, there is growing evidence that a commitment to one or two forms of protection in isolation does not lead to a "fatigue safe organisation".

Recent examples of this experience are as follows:

The Sydney based Waterfall Rail Safety Investigation report found that both master rosters and actual hours of work have to be assessed for compliance with fatigue management policies.
The Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) investigation into its initial attempt to encourage aviation operators to adopt a Fatigue Risk Management system found that the use of a fatigue risk assessment product such as Faid^® in isolation does not constitute an adequate fatigue risk management system.

For high hazard industries such as transport, manufacturing, mining and healthcare it is becoming clear that three levels of protection (control) are required to give adequate protection, as described below:

Primary Protection – achieved by developing fatigue safe work practises and schedules (rosters), workforce capacity settings, policies and procedures which significantly reduce personal and organisational fatigue risk.
Secondary Protection – achieved by the development of competencies in managing fatigue risk at an operator and management level together with monitoring compliance with legislated and corporate fatigue safety standards.
Tertiary Protection – achieved through competency based contingency and emergency plans to protect against unplanned situations where high levels of fatigue are experienced by individuals.

Faid^®Safe Service is a risk engineering based framework used to establish adequacy of current and future controls to protect against inherent fatigue hazards and is based on a holistic diagnosis of operational, capacity and cultural exposures, coupled with the development of primary, secondary and tertiary safeguards.

Faid^®Safe Services

Installation of a fatigue safe system represents a "journey of discovery" for an organisation. Faid^®Safe Services has been developed on a modular basis to allow for the phasing-in of the service over a period of some 18-24 months while encapsulating the relevant levels of protection along the journey.

Each phase of the journey involves the implementation of one or several modules and protection levels, depending on the organisations considered ability to absorb them into their framework.

Based on InterDynamics experience, this approach represents the most expedient pathway forward, allowing for "checks & balances" to be completed during the journey.

The individual modules and relevant protection levels are as follows: