Our Story
Previous studies and industrial investigations have demonstrated that workers’ performance with proceduralized tasks and written procedures continues to be associated with process incidents. Though many efforts have been made to address this, these issues persist. The Advanced Procedures initiative was established in 2013 as a collaboration between the Texas A&M Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center and the Ergonomics Center. This initiative has resulted in numerous ongoing projects, all serving to identify important elements of effective procedural systems based on human systems interactions. These elements serve to increase workers’ adherence to procedures by improving the usefulness of the procedures, overall procedural systems, and methods for delivering and utilizing them. From these, guidelines for a procedure writer’s guide have been developed which are continuing to evolve and become more refined as more information is gained from the results of our research projects.
Our Mission
The Advanced Procedures initiative strives to advance the state of industry with regard to procedural systems through university-industry collaborations on pre-competitive, non-proprietary research and education to identify methods and practices that improve the implementation, use, and adherence to procedures in high-risk industrial settings. This initiative involves state-of-the-art research and analysis to identify deficiencies within procedures as well as ways to make procedures more effectively address human factors needs. This results in minimizing the likelihood of incidents or inefficiencies and making the procedures more effective for use in the process industries.
Our Difference
The Advanced Procedures initiative draws from the skills and strengths of Texas A&M researchers from diverse backgrounds of education and experience, including psychology, public health, chemical and industrial engineering, process safety, and others. Our mutual relationships with industry partners are leveraged to address practical problems and promote objective analysis of procedural systems for identification of deficiencies and opportunities for improvement.
