Human Factors influence on Control Centre design

The organisation's Safety Assurance Manager, Mark Ashmore explained: “The OCC is at the heart of tram operations, so its design should support staff whose role is to help provide safe, effective and efficient services.

“This new, peer-reviewed guidance sets out how a human factors (HF) approach can optimise design and operations for new OCC as well as for amending existing facilities.”

The guidance is available to download from the Light Rail SSB website here. It shows how the integration of human factors should be central to concept, design and delivery of new or improved OCC.

Mark added: “The document is aimed at individuals or companies involved in OCC concept design and project management, as well as those dealing with functional and technical specifications, procurement, contracts approval, equipment and software suppliers, and so on.

“It explains the process for structuring a Human Factors Integration Plan (HFIP) that will identify opportunities and risks involved, how the HF work will be managed and when it needs to be done within the project lifecycle.

“The aim is to provide a complete picture of what tasks need to be executed and how they are performed, with early task analysis to be done before key design conditions have been taken.”

There are sections too on human error analysis, workload assessment, ergonomics, construction and equipment installation as well as HF organisation, roles and responsibilities.