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Welcome to Focus on Fatigue, the official FaidSafe® newsletter
It’s our 10th birthday!
FAID® is 10 years old this month. To mark the occasion Len Pearson, General Manager FaidSafe Business Group has written a brief history about the development and use of FAID and what has marked its success. It comes as no surprise that market acceptance is in part due to the scientific validity of FAID. What some of you may not be aware of is just how many organisations are using FAID and how many employees are under FAID and FRMS management.
InterDynamics and its FaidSafe alliance partners currently service over 200 clients across 12 countries. The result is that over 100,000 people have their hours of work (HoW) influenced by the FAID fatigue assessment software and operate under organisational FRMS Policy & Procedures. The major safety critical industry groups that have engaged in the process include aviation, rail, marine, mining, energy, road transport, police and health.
One of the questions we are most commonly asked is whether fatigue is a risk or a hazard. This is a confusing question because in some countries it is recognised as a hazard within the health and safety legislation, however where the task risk is considered low, as in the case with some administrative tasks, then the risk of harm from fatigue is relatively low. Fatigue-related risk becomes a hazard within the context of the task you are doing i.e. the 'task risk'. So, feeling fatigued watching TV, lying down on the sofa is not a risky task, but as soon as you get up and go to drive your car it becomes one. This is why so many safety critical organisations are implementing FRMS. Simply put, many have high risk tasks and if they make a mistake they may not get a second chance.
Practitioners' of the FaidSafe see fatigue not so much as a risk in its own right but as something that can influence or trigger a fatigue-related event or occurrence. Fatigue can also manifest as lower safety, lower productivity, etc.). Where we refer to "atigue risk" we should perhaps update that to read "task risk with fatigue as a trigger" or more simply state as "fatigue-related risk".
This issue is discussed in the feature article, on fatigue hazard analysis.
Work safely,
Fiona Johnston
Shiftwork Services
A brief history of FAID®
Len Pearson, General Manager FaidSafe® Business Group
The introduction of FAID to the FRMS (fatigue risk management systems) market in September 1999 turned out to be a catalyst that caused a significant expansion to the market.
This was due in part to the scientific validity of FAID resulting in market acceptance leading to FAID software sales, and also in part to a greater acceptance and understanding by industry generally that fatigue was now a hazard that could be properly managed through the application of risk management procedures, such as AS/NZ4360.
One significant software product that has been developed, with FAID imbedded in the functionality, is the Work Scheduling Board Game. This was originally developed for Union Pacific Rail Road (USA) in 2001-2002 and the technology has now been taken on by others in that market, such as Canadian Pacific Railway, Norfolk Southern Corporation and BNSF Railway.
Also developed for that market was a customised version of the basic FAID software that enabled the individual clients to obtain a "Business Wide" view of the fatigue exposure profile. This is particularly relevant when there is 20,000+ employees and over 150 depots or branch operations.
This product has evolved and is now also used by aviation companies such as Jetstar (Aus), Air Pacific (Fiji), easyJet(UK), and road transport operator Fonterra (NZ).
Major Industry Collaborations
A Global alliance partnership commenced in late 2003 with Zurich Insurance through its Risk Engineering Division. This partnership has developed FaidSafe, a risk-based integrated fatigue management solution based on risk engineering principles with the Zurich Hazard Analysis (ZHA) process at its core. InterDynamics has developed supporting software to the ZHA process in HAZAID™ and GRAID™ and branded the process FaidSafe® Fatigue Hazard Analysis or FHA.
Fatigue Hazard Analysis – Zurich Risk Engineering
Task Hazard Analysis in the context of fatigue
Fatigue is the context of how we look at the hazard of the task (i.e. task hazard). Fatigue is not the hazard. Hence, this is really task risk management in the context of fatigue.
To establish this context, it is necessary to first gain an appreciation of the indicative fatigue level amongst the organisation's workforce. This is achieved by determining the 'apparent' Fatigue Tolerance Level (FTL) via analysis using a scientifically-proven fatigue model. In the case of FaidSafe, this model is Hours of Work (HoW) based and is called FAID.
In the news
Near miss train driver fatigue - BBC News, July 28, 2009
The report said driver fatigue was another possible cause of the near-miss. It added: "The driver may have been fatigued and distracted by the presence of..."
Pilots, others not tested for sleep disorders - USA TODAY
Airline pilots, like train drivers, ship's captains and others, are not screened for sleep disorders that may hinder their ability to operate safely...
Professor calls for legislation to prosecute fatigued drivers – Washington Post
A prominent US sleep professor has called for explicit legislation to consistently recognise accidents caused by drowsy drivers as cases of gross negligence.
Writing in the Washington Post, Professor Charles A Czeisler, Director of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School, has highlighted the inconsistent manner with which current laws have been applied to fatigued-driver accidents...
Alliance Partner news
Nuclear Presentation
Information relating to a recent conference that Len Pearson presented at in conjunction with USA nuclear industry alliance partner EMAX/Bensinger Dupont and Associates.
Freight 2009
InterDynamics is supporting Freight 2009 which is to be held in Melbourne September 7th to September 11th 2009.
Guiding the Design of a Fatigue Risk management System for Jetairfly
Clockwork have been guiding the design of a fatigue risk management system for a charter airline. They surveyed the crew and analysed the rosters using FAID. The methodology and summary of results is interesting reading.
Working Week Runs like Clockwork – by Dr Paul Jackson
Most fatigue research is conducted by the academic community with little consideration for business practicalities. So, together with fatigue specialist Dr Alexandra Holmes, I set up Clockwork Research four years ago to provide scientifically valid solutions that take account of the operational realities of running an airline.
Working Globally
FaidSafe alliance partners are based in Australia, Europe, New Zealand and North America. Between us we are taking FaidSafe to the global market. We want to make this service available to every organisation that is exposed to fatigue risks. No matter where you are, we would like to hear from you. We want to add value to your business.
About the Custodian of the Brand
InterDynamics have been in the scheduling and risk business since 1992. InterDynamics has been privileged to work with leading operational practitioners, scientists and risk engineers to develop and deliver world class fatigue risk programs and products. FaidSafe is offered as a global benchmark for risk-based integrated fatigue managment solutions.
FAID® and FaidSafe® are registered brand names of InterDynamics® Pty Ltd.
For more information on InterDynamics, visit the InterDynamics website.
FAID® received a WorkCover SA SAfeWork 2001 Award
