Situational Awareness Errors in Forklift Logistics Operations: A Multiphase Eye-Tracking and Think-Aloud Approach

Background: This study explores forklift operators’ situational awareness (SA) and human errors in logistic operations using a multiphase approach as an innovative methodology. Methods: Ethnography, eye tracking, error taxonomy, and retrospective think-aloud (RTA) were used to study the diverse cognitive, behavioral, and operational aspects affecting SA. After analyzing 566 events across 18 tasks, this research highlighted eye tracking’s potential by offering real-time insights into operator behavior and RTA’s potential as a method for cross-checking the causal factors underlying errors. Results: Critical tasks, like positioning forklifts and lowering pallets, significantly impact incident occurrence, while high-cognitive demand tasks, such as hoisting and identifying pedestrians/obstacles, reduce SA and increase errors. Driving tasks are particularly vulnerable to errors and are the most affected by operator risk generators (ORGs), representing 42% of incident risk events. This study identifies driving, hoisting, and lowering loads as the tasks most influenced by system factors. Limitations include the task difficulty levels, managing physical risk, and training. Future research is suggested in autonomous industrial vehicles and advanced driver assistance systems (ADASs). Conclusions: This study provides valuable insights into how we may improve safety in logistics operations by proposing a multiphase methodology to uncover the patterns of attention, perception, and cognitive errors and their impact on decision-making.