Impact of Staffing Parameters on Operational Reliability

Hahn, Heidi Ann; Houghton, F. Kay; ,

Impact of Staffing Parameters on Operational Reliability

by Heidi Ann Hahn, Los Alamos Natl Lab, Los Alamos, United States,
F. Kay Houghton, Los Alamos Natl Lab, Los Alamos, United States,

Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: High Level Radioactive Waste Management 1993

Abstract:

This paper reports on a project related to human resource management of the Department of Energy's (DOE's) High-Level Waste (HLW) Tank program. Safety and reliability of waste tank operations is impacted by several issues, including not only the design of the tanks themselves, but also how operations and operational personnel are managed. As demonstrated by management assessments performed by the Tiger Teams, DOE believes that the effective use of human resources impacts environments safety, and health concerns. For the purposes of the current paper, human resource management activities are identified as 'Staffing' and include the process of developing the functional responsibilities and qualifications of technical and administrative personnel. This paper discusses the importance of staff plans and management in the overall view of safety and reliability, the work activities and procedures associated with the project, a review of the results of these activities, including a summary of the literature and a preliminary analysis of the data. We conclude that, although identification of staffing issues and the development of staffing plans contributes to the overall reliability and safety of the HLW tanks, the relationship is not well understood and is in need of further development.

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