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New control room technologies : human factors analytical tools for railway safety

journal contribution
posted on 2017-12-06, 00:00 authored by Elise CrawfordElise Crawford, Yvonne Toft, Ryan KiftRyan Kift
Inadequate consideration of human factors has been found to be a leading cause of unwanted consequences associated with control room systems. To guard against these events, many safety regulators have mandated that human factors are to be addressed as part of safety management, with Australian railways receiving the national mandate in January 2013. At the moment, as is the case in many parts of the world, Australian railways do not have their own dedicated standard or guide on how to integrate human factors. Fourtunately, understanding of human factors in work systems has advanced significantly since the 1980s and a growing professional body of specialists is emerging. Alongside systems engineers and project managers, many human factors specialists are involved in the design of new systems. By attending to the contextual details, designs become more compatible with their human counterparts and numerous analytical tools and techniques have been developed for this purpose. Therefore, it would be advantageous for railway operators and systems engineers to know the types of activites human factors specilists are involved in and how they might contribute to human factors integration. A literature review was conducted to identify the integration approaches used by technology designers and various safety-critical domains. Additionally, a study was conducted to identify the human factors analytical tools and techniques that are typically used in control room settings. Findings from the study provide a useful snapshot of the types of activities human factors professionals are involved in, the tools and techniques they use and the areas currently being addressed that benefit from closer human factors attention.

Funding

Category 3 - Industry and Other Research Income

History

Volume

227

Issue

5

Start Page

529

End Page

538

Number of Pages

10

ISSN

0954-4097

Location

London, UK

Publisher

Sage

Language

en-aus

Peer Reviewed

  • Yes

Open Access

  • No

Era Eligible

  • Yes

Journal

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part F : Journal of rail and rapid transit.

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