Human Factors in the Chemical and Process Industries

Foreword

Dame Judith Hackitt, DBE

This book focuses on the principle that there is a fundamental need to understand humans and their behaviors, and apply this to chemical engineering and the process industries.

In writing the foreword it is unusual to begin by recommending another book to the reader, but that is where I want to start. In 2015 I read Professor Steve Hilton’s book entitled “More Human—Designing a World Where People Come First.” In this “big systems” focused book there were some fascinating case studies of where well-meaning government and other attempts at solving social problems had failed because the systems that were put in place were “inhuman”—governments, bureaucrats, and others had failed to take account of the needs ...