Why is it necessary to discuss the role of people in control rooms? For many of us it has been obvious for decades that we need to create a harmony between technology and the people involved in steering, controlling, and managing the technology. Countless accidents with very dramatic and severe consequences have been blamed on […]
Category: CONTROL ROOM DESIGN AND ERGONOMICS
SOME RECOMMENDATIONS IN SUMMARY
Work in control rooms can either be organised around maintenance, engineering/ field service, and error/fault handling, or around planning and process optimisation. In the first case, work in the control room is in some way combined with maintenance and service tasks carried out in the plant itself. In the other case, the control room operator […]
BUSINESS CONCEPTS AND SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT
There can be many and varied reasons behind planning a new process industry or a large reconstruction project. The underlying reasons are often associated with governmental industrial policies, employment policies, and so on. Normally there is also some form of business strategy based upon a business concept. If limited to development projects of new computerised […]
THE HUMAN USER AS A COMPONENT
The degree of success when planning human/machine systems, and in particular monitoring and control systems, is entirely dependent upon being able to predict the consequences of different design solutions. The ability to predict the consequences of a specific solution is dependent in turn upon the designers’ insight, knowledge, and experience of the various components that […]
Conclusions and Recommendations in Summary
Toni Ivergard and Brian Hunt CONTENTS 14.1 Old Knowledge and Slow Implementations 345 14.2 The Human User as a Component 346 14.3 Business Concepts and System Development………………………………………… 347 14.4 Some Recommendations in Summary 348 14.5 Summary of a New Perspective……………………………………………………………… 350 References and Further Reading……………………………………………………………………….. 353 14.1 OLD KNOWLEDGE AND SLOW IMPLEMENTATIONS It is very […]
JOB ORGANISATION AND ALTERNATIVE FORMS OF AUTOMATION
Advanced technology for control and information processing, often computerised, has infiltrated almost explosively into more and more areas. In spite of optimistic expectations, this has often led to deteriorating work conditions for the people involved. This has been described in a large number of ergonomic and social/psy – chological studies. Within the process industries, it […]
ORGANISATION OF THE DESIGN PROCESS
Recently, there has been considerable emphasis on the rights of users to have an input into product/system development. To achieve an effective input from employees, it is necessary to establish an organisation for the planning work as a complement to the planning philosophy presented in Figure 13.1. This organisation is probably best determined in the […]
HOLISTIC VIEW OF PLANNING
A starting point for the development of computer software should always be to obtain an understanding of the stereotypical expectations of the operators. There are, however, critical difficulties with this method. Different individuals have different mental models and therefore different stereotyped expectations. Thus, it is not relevant for the software designer to use himself as […]
Allocation of Functions
Allocation of functions can be done in more or less detail. If ergonomically-orientated function allocation is used, it is relatively simple to specify the level of detail at which the functions allocation should be carried out. In the function allocation stage that follows function analysis, the functions are allocated between humans and machines/personnel technology. In […]
Function Analysis
Function analysis often leads to a form of function diagram. One basic rule in this work is that it should be free from preconceptions and not bound by any special components or solutions worked out previously. As an example, consider the transport of goods through a supermarket checkout. The question is whether this should be […]