Dr. Christopher Wickens and Mr. Christopher Plott led a pilot study to identify appropriate methods of measuring Pipeline Controller/Refinery Operator workload to ultimately establish a ‘red-line’ that can be applied across the industry. The investigators visited a Pipeline Control Center and Refinery Control Room to gain additional knowledge of the industry and deeper understanding of the number of responsibilities and associated workload assigned to the Controller/Operator. A high level overview and analysis was produced with a plan to develop an algorithm and establish the red-line. The COP decided not to pursue the following phases which came at a high cost and would require extensive time and effort from the project champion and participating members.
A key goal of the project is to develop a red-line of operator workload that will predict when performance will break down because of overload, typically occurring during times of crisis or system failure. In this pilot effort Alion will develop an approach describing how to predict and validate this redline, employing human factors findings from other industrial domains, and tailoring those to the refinery/pipeline industry.
What research/studies are needed to establish the determinants and limits of controller/console operator workload for safe process operation?
(Note that, in the verbiage below, “operator” refers to the pipeline company, and “controller” refers to the console operator.)
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) regulations regarding control room management and human factors are covered in 49 CFR 195.446€(5), which requires pipeline operators to
Monitor the content and volume of general activity being directed to and required of each controller at least once each calendar year, but at intervals not exceeding 15 months, that will assure controllers have sufficient time to analyze and react to incoming alarms; and 192.631(e)(5) Monitor the content and volume of general activity being directed to and required of each controller at least once each calendar year, but at intervals not exceeding 15 months, that will assure controllers have sufficient time to analyze and react to incoming alarms;
Auditors for compliance to this requirement will be looking for answers to the following questions –
1. Does the company’s program have a means of identifying and measuring the work load (content and volume of general activity) being directed to an individual controller?
• Process must have a sufficient degree of formality and documentation
• “General activity” means any activity that is required of the controller.
• For continuous operations, operator should be able to describe the differences in the level of activity during weekdays/ weekends, and during day/night shifts.
• If the operator has added any significant assets or SCADA points since the previous review, the operator must account for this change in the next workload review.
• If the operator has impressed other activities, not related to pipeline operation onto the controller position, the operator should ascertain these activities do not undermine pipeline safety.
• Measurement of workload should be performed during all periods of time, seasons, and shifts to account for variations in overall demands on controllers.
2. Is the process of monitoring and analyzing general activity comprehensive?
• Activities to be analyzed may include manual calculations, alarms, on duty (or on the job) training, manual entries of setpoints or control, phone usage metrics, customer/shipper interactions, increased activity as a result of failures, near misses, errors.
• Metrics may include Phone usage metrics number and duration of calls, keyboard interaction time, amount of idle time, time to acknowledge alarms, number of data points being monitored, and number of control actions.
3. Does the company’s program have a means of determining that the controller has sufficient time to analyze and react to incoming alarms?
• Controller response metrics associated with alarm handling such as frequency of alarms (typically alarms per shift) received per console.
• Criteria for acceptable controller performance in response to alarms.
4. Has the company performed an analysis to determine if controller(s) performance is currently adequate?
• Tabulating current assignments and responsibilities alone is not adequate as a workload analysis.
• Combining current workload and the outcome of performance metrics can provide a basic understanding of workload.
• Operators should assure that controller performance meets minimum performance standards as defined by the operator.
Monthly Reports
Final Report and briefing package