What Is Fatigue and What Causes It?

Fatigue is simply defined as tiredness. A human factors definition could be performance impairment from lack of sleep and/or circadian rhythm disruption. Most humans need between seven and nine hours of sleep in every twenty-four day. Our circadian rhythms generally are high in the daytime and low at night. When a person works at night, the circadian rhythm is disrupted and it might be harder to sleep in the daytime. I’ll explain this more fully in other articles.

Adequate sleep is the only real solution to fatigue, although humans are always seeking quicker fixes. Fatigue, however, can be caused by other factors than lack of sleep due to being up for long amounts of time.

Let me explain with a Dale Carnegie quote: “Our fatigue is often caused not by work, but by worry, frustration, and resentment.” Do you find it difficult to rest and sleep from those three factors? What are your strategies for eliminating worry, avoiding frustration, and losing resentment?

Posted January 8th, 2007 in Managing Fatigue

“I’ve Stayed Up All Night Before”

One of my favorite stories is about a good friend, who is a high level manager with an oil company. He is also a professional engineer and a sound financial analyst. We were on a team and discussing a recommendation about allowing shiftworkers to choose their shifts.

The team was considering allowing shiftworkers a choice between the current shift and two options that allowed twelve hour daily shifts with more days off from the job. The twelve hours shifts would cause an additional cost per employee to the company. This cost was not significant per employee, but the total costs were a concern.

I worked shiftwork for many years and felt a responsibility to communicate those effects to the team. After one discussion, my good friend said, “I just don’t understand what the big deal is! I’ve stayed up all night before studying for exams or working on a maintenance shutdown. After sleeping a few hours, I was all right.” If you have not worked shiftwork regularly, it is hard to understand its cumulative effects.

An epiphany occurred! I recognized that one’s experience determines one’s viewpoint. I said, “Imagine that you’re going to be required to stay up all night for a week and be allowed to sleep during the day. Then the next week, you’ll work from 3 PM to 11 PM and sleep after work. The third week, you’ll work from 7 AM to 3 PM and sleep at night. Now think about repeating that schedule for your entire career. What would the cumulative effect be on you?”

The team recommended that shiftworkers be allowed to choose from one of three shifts. That does not remove the effects of shiftwork. Shiftworkers who are involved in the selection of their shift are more likely to have job satisfaction.

Posted January 8th, 2007 in Managing Fatigue

Operational Excellence is Like a Web

A spider web is a good way to think about operational excellence. When a spider spins a web, it finds a sturdy starting point to anchor the first strand. When that strand is connected to both points, it has high tensile strength. Once all the strands are connected, the tensile strength of the entire web are multiplied. If one of the individual strands get broken, the entire web is weakened. The spider has to pay attention to the entire web and every strand, not just the strands that are easiest to maintain.

In my experience, companies that want to achieve operational excellence understand that a systemic approach is necessary. They cannot look at operational excellence as a project to improve procedures, for example. An effective procedure program is an element of operational excellence, but not the only element. Other necessary elements include administrative policies, human factors, training, performance measures, and an integrated lessons learned program.

After a major organizational accident, one company decided the “silver bullet” was to develop procedures, train people on the procedures, and address noncompliance with the procedures. While those things were necessary, we had to add several other elements to address all aspects of the sociotechical system. Simply, we addressed people, process, and technology. Then we had an Operational Excellence program that worked. The Operational Excellence web had the tensile strength to hold up and perform well over time. All the strands were constantly maintained.

We did not focus on one, and neglect the others. That is a recipe for problems. One has to be careful not to focus on one’s favorite solution or the solution one always uses. Lots of companies believe training is the fix-all for everything. Put more tools in the toolbox. Remember the saying that if your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Posted January 7th, 2007 in Operational Excellence