Control Room Design from Situation Analysis to Final Lay-out; Operator Contributions and the Role of Ergonomists

Designing control rooms for the process industries is usually a complex matter. Introducing human factors into a design project is even more complicated. Often the methodological approaches found in literature are to some degree theoretical and inflexible. Moreover, in practice one has to compromise in view of the delay in recognition and acceptance of human factors, limited budgets and deadlines. This heavily influences the time schedule for ergonomic contributions. Hence a necessary condition for an effective approach is that the methods are adaptable to a variety of different (local) situations. Such an approach, which was applied in several projects, will be presented, with reference to the design of a new control room for a highly integrated oil refinery. Particular attention will be paid to contributions by process operators to different design phases, and to the role of ergonomists. From this, and other case studies, it can be concluded that the essential design steps could be succesfully applied in a diverse set of industries and design situations.