Human Factor Engineering and Incident Prevention in Oil and Gas Welding Operations

Welding operations are known for high safety risk which requires urgent identification and prevention before they result in huge negative impacts on the nations’ gross domestic product, organizations, workers and the environment. This research aimed at developing a human factor engineering model that support loss prevention in welding industry by assessing the impact of human factors on incident frequency and safety performance in Nigerian Oil and Gas industry. The study was carried out using coded skilled welders who had at least two years’ experience and above. Descriptive study design with structured questionnaire was used for data collection and Satistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 Structural equation modelling software for data analysis. The results revealed that Pearson’s correlation coefficient between human factors and safety performance were statistically significant with a p-values of -0.45, 0.72, -0.50, 0.77 and 0.32 for workplace, task, personal, organizational and design factors respectively. Pearson’s correlation coefficient between human factors and incident frequency and fatality rates were 0.64, -0.55, 0.71, -0.89, and -0.45 for workplace, task, personal, organizational and design factors respectively. The structural equation regression model showed that human factors and safety performance was statistically significant with a path coefficient of -0.733, 0.860, -0.615, 0.616 and 0.430 for personal, organizational, workplace, design and task factors respectively. The structural equation regression model showed that human factors and incident frequency was statistically significant with a path coefficient of 0.59, -0.79, 0.63, -0.60 and -0.31 for personal, organizational, workplace, design and task factors respectively.The research concluded that engineered human factors would lead to improved safety performance, structural integrity and reduction in incident frequency rate. The study recommended that national, international agencies, government, professional bodies and companies should focus on human factor engineering in delivering products with structural integrity, boost performance and reduce lost time injuries and occupational diseases.