Human factors in NDT: a re-emerging field
- Human factors have puzzled the non-destructive testing (NDT) community since the NDT’s beginnings. It is well known that various human and organisational factors affect the reliability of NDT in the field. Hence, various efforts have been made to improve the technology, the training and the qualification process, the inspection procedures, and the working conditions, among others. However, human factors still puzzle the NDT community and the efforts to fill the gap in knowledge are rather scarce. In comparison to other fields, human factors in NDT have been a rather poorly investigated field. In the past 30 years, only a handful of institutes engaged into the research in this field. However, the recent efforts from the UK and Germany have brought the topic into spotlight. This paper will provide an overview of existing knowledge in the field and discuss future directions.