Human Factors in Alarm Response Procedures: an Empirical Analysis of Paper versus Digital support

Abstract

The objective of a Human Machine Interface (HMI) is to communicate process monitoring information, data, metrics and graphics to an operator through a screen or dashboard and offer an opportunity to control equipment and processes in factories and plants. But after the annunciation of an alarm, how effective is the supporting documentation. The existence of a refined set of instructions and procedures in the form of checklists has been a major factor contributing to the improved safety outcomes observed in the nuclear and aviation sectors. The use of paper-based checklists has been the norm, however, trials of digitized instruction systems have been on the rise in these sectors. The focus of the paper is to analyse an operator on their behaviour and situational awareness from when an alarm is annunciated to the completion of the intervention process using either paper or digitised procedures. The participants(n=46) were split equally into two groups, each testing three tasks with increasing levels of complexity. Results showed that those who were presented with the procedures on paper had slightly better situational awareness and preferred to use paper procedures when compared to those using the digitised procedures. The rationale for this outcome and recommendation for subsequent redesign of the HMI are presented in this paper.

Keywords: procedural guidance, control rooms, human factors, human machine interfaces, situational awareness, decision support

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1005470