Control rooms course organised by IBC. Human factors and control rooms in major hazard industries.

1. Tel: 01492 879813 Mob: 07984 284642
andy@abrisk.co.uk
www.abrisk.co.uk
Managing the risks of control room
operations
Andy Brazier

2. What is a control room?

3. What is a control room?

4. Definition
A place where a facility or service can be
monitored and controlled
The hub or command centre for decisions
Central location where humans or computers receive
data from field sensors.
Commands may be transmitted back to remotely
controlled equipment or field personnel
People that do the monitoring and control - not
the control room.

5. The Brain of a system
Soft, shiny,
grey-white
Multiple
parts
Located in
head
Value only make sense
in terms of function

6. Brain relies on human senses
Control rooms deny
operators the use of
their senses
How does this affect
their capability?

7. System visibility
Limited possibilities for
many systems
CCTV can provide
some compensation
Essential or nice to
have?

8. Connection with the real world
Only outside view – Middle of desert in Oman!

9. Operators using their hearing
Pouring molten iron – crane driver could not
hear the pops and bangs that warn of a problem
Gas plant operators not recognising the noise –
stunt plane practicing nearby.

10. What do Control Room Operators do?
Control – monitor – operate
Normal Situations
Communication - face to face including handovers
Other communication - radio/telephone
Administrative tasks
Eat meals
Issue permits-to-work
Training - themselves and others.

11. What do Control Room Operators do?
Emergency situations
Raise the alarm
Notify emergency services
Co-ordinate communication
Keep the log
Accounting for personnel
Monitor process for escalation.

12. Other control room users
Field operators - Supervisors
Maintenance staff - Emergency response
Benefits of them using the control room
Improved communication
Involving the control room operator – teamwork
Access to all information
Potential negatives
Distraction
Confusion – who is in charge?

13. Getting the balance
right
Keeping people out
Locating them in the control room

14. Changes in the Control Room
New technology
More automation
Less people
More remote
A different job
More passive
More lonely
More responsibility.

15. The impact of modern control rooms
Benefits
Relieve people of boring, unpleasant and potentially
hazardous tasks
More consistent and reliable operation
Negative outcomes
Operators overloaded with alarms and data
Non-intuitive interfaces – people have to work harder
A smaller ‘window’ on the system
Over reliance on technology
Managers becoming more distant from the operators.

16. Problems with alarms
Typical
70% - Low priority
90% - High priority
80% - Medium?
Operator perspective
70% - High priority
90% - Low priority
92% - Very high
Overflow at 100%
Trip at 90%
10% in 15
minutes

17. More alarms must be better philosophy
1992 Vax system operating 6 machines – much
better alarms than 2004 Windows XP system
operating 3 machines
Past – every alarm had a cost Now – just a line of code

18. Engineers’ graphics
Using Piping and Instrumentation Drawings to design
graphics – they are not drawn with that use in mind

19. Multiple options for emergency shutdown
Operators don’t want to have make have choices in an emergency

20. Other technology
Cordless phones – what
happens in a power failure?
Remote access – why visit
the control room? Manager
can monitor on holiday

21. Approaches to control room design
Two contrasting views that result in poor design
All control rooms look the same – little to be
considered in design
Control rooms required specialist designers – leave
them to get on with it with minimal input from others
Uncontrolled modifications
Different approaches used
Re-instrumentation – run by instrument engineers
Process improvement – run by operations
Organisational – run by business managers

22. Balanced approach to end user
involvement
Important (essential) – but requires some care
Choice of furniture – how it looks
Larger large display – without identifying a need
Control graphics – same as existing
Manage expectations
Resistance to change is inevitable
‘User centred not ‘user led.’

23. Plausible on paper
Console desk only 500mm wide – typical 1000mm

24. New into old
Leg space!

25. 25
Lone operator

26. Human capabilities
Abilities
Limitations
Still on Version 1

27. Hazards for control room staff
Normal workplace (similar to an office)
Slips, trips and falls
Electricity
Fire
Nature of the job
Lack of physical activity
Mental exertion
External events
Fire, explosions, toxic release
Terrorism.

28. Hazards to others
Operating errors – doing things wrong
Failure to detect, diagnose and respond to
abnormal events
Consequences can be devastating
Not addressed by ‘normal’ risk assessments or
evaluations focussed purely on control room
arrangements.

29. Nature of the Control Room Job
Features that make a job
satisfying
The Modern CRO
Skill variety Lots of monitoring, not much
action
Task significance Lots of automation - CRO
responds when things go wrong
Task identity CRO responsible for large
number of plants/systems
Autonomy Minimal - working to very tight
specifications
Task feedback Aim is to avoid upsets and
incidents

30. Common themes
Too many distractions in control rooms
Nuisance alarms
Visitors, contractors, day staff
Fatigue because it is difficult for control room
operators to get quality breaks
Less face-to-face communication within teams
Unreliable radios
Procedures unsuitable for new ways of working
Over reliance on informal training
Inadequate refresher training
Reducing levels of supervision.

31. Conclusions
A control room is only a component in a system
A tool for people to operate the system
A new/upgraded control room is a major change
Usually multiple drivers
Can fundamentally change the way people work
End user involvement is essential, but only as
part of a ‘user centred’ approach
Do not assume that using the latest technology
and applying the latest standards will guarantee
a successful control room