Eradicating human errors during preventive maintenance understanding the psychological reasons we make errors and implementing proactive practices to manage and reduce human errors

In 2011, at STMicroelectronics 200mm manufacturing facility in Rousset France, we implemented a program to eliminate human errors during maintenance. Part of the program involved the implementation of a training based on a tool kit developed by the nuclear power industry. We adapted this training to our manufacturing environment, with the objective to change the mindset and culture of our maintenance management and staff. Our objective was to evolve our maintenance culture towards a more generative model, where we understand our limitations and why we make errors, and how can we learn from our mistakes. We accompanied this training with different programs and projects focused on the execution of maintenance tasks, implementing strategies to capture of errors, lessons learned, and sharing of difficulties. Subsequent to the deployment of this program, we have reduced equipment related scrap by 33% and reduced the number of human errors by a factor of 10.