Development of an expert system for abnormal operating procedures in a main control room

The study was conducted from the perspective of human factors engineering in order to compare the process that operators originally used to diagnose potential and actual faults with a process that included an expert system for diagnosing faults. The results of the study indicated that the existence of an expert system for fault diagnosis makes the task of fault diagnosis easier and reduces errors by quickly suggesting likely Abnormal Operating Procedures (AOPs).     

Operator performance and subjective response in control of flexible manufacturing systems

In this study, allocation of functions and system size (number of machines) were manipulated to test their effects on operator performance and subjective response in a flexible manufacturing system (FMS). An experiment was conducted using a cross-over design with three independent variables: number of machines, task allocation, and sequence of task presentation. Operator performance was measured by response time, and subjective response assessed using two questionnaires. Physiological measures were also taken (EKG and respiratory rate). The results revealed that the number of machines in the system did not affect performance or subjective or physiological response while the effect of allocation level was significant for both performance and subjective response.     

Operator performance and subjective response in control of flexible manufacturing systems

Abstract

In this study, allocation of functions and system size (number of machines) were manipulated to test their effects on operator performance and subjective response in a flexible manufacturing system (FMS). An experiment was conducted using a cross-over design with three independent variables: number of machines, task allocation, and sequence of task presentation. Operator performance was measured by response time, and subjective response assessed using two questionnaires. Physiological measures were also taken (EKG and respiratory rate). The results revealed that the number of machines in the system did not affect performance or subjective or physiological response while the effect of allocation level was significant for both performance and subjective response.     

Task Analysis for Industrial Work Process from Aspects of Human Reliability and System Safety

In the design, development, and manufacturing stage of industrial products, engineers usually focus on the problems caused by hardware or software, but pay less attention to problems caused by human error, which may significantly affect system reliability and safety. Although operating procedures are strictly followed, human error still may occur occasionally. Among the influencing factors, the inappropriate design of standard operation procedure (SOP) or standard assembly procedure (SAP) is an important and latent reason for unexpected results found during human operation. To reduce the error probability and error effects of these unexpected behaviors in the industrial work process, overall evaluation of SOP or SAP quality has become an essential task. The human error criticality analysis (HECA) method was developed to identify the potentially critical problems caused by human error in the human operation system. This method performs task analysis on the basis of operation procedure. For example, SOP, analyzes the human error probability (HEP) for each human operation step, and assesses its error effects to the whole system. The results of the analysis will show the interrelationship that exists between critical human tasks, critical human error modes, and human reliability information of the human operation system. To identify the robustness of the model, a case study of initiator assembly tasks was conducted. Results show that the HECA method is practicable in evaluating the operation procedure, and the information is valuable in identifying the means to upgrade human reliability and system safety for human tasks.