Develop a Human Performance Modeling System for Process Safety Operations

摘要

Operators have a crucial role in case of an emergency in a process facility. When an abnormality occurs in theprocess, the operator has a limited time to take corrective actions before system safety devices shut down thesystem. It is crucial that system designers and safety professionals know about this required time / time framebefore operations are initiatedSpecific research goals for this project include the following:1.Estimating the standard time data for operators to take corrective actions in emergency situations.2.Developing an easy-to-use computer based modeling system, to allow design/process engineers to findthe standard time required for the operator(s) to respond in emergency situations.Current standard time data for carrying out tasks cover normal cases. However, the time required to take actionsin emergency situations is different than normal cases. Because of the possibility of a process incident and danger,operators make corrective actions faster compared to normal cases. Therefore, current standard time data do notmeet the requirement for emergency situations. A shorter standard time data for emergency situations needs to beestimated.Standard time data for emergency situations is estimated by using time studies. Various time study methods wereintroduced and discussed. MODAPTS is a predetermined time standard method and stands for MODularArrangement of Predetermined Time Standards, and was used in this project because it is reliable, easy to use andconsistent.The methodology adopted for the study required observing several emergency case videos. Then the operationsare decomposed into basic motions (such as walking, hand movement, bend and arise, etc.) by using a videoplayer’s frame by frame feature. The amount of time required to take these basic motions was estimated. Theseestimated times were then compared to MODAPTS data, which is a predetermined time standard system. Bycomparing MODAPTS’s standard time intervals with those estimated from emergency situations, coefficientshave been estimated for the various basic motions (e.g., factors such as 0.9, 0.75, etc.).The estimated coefficient for emergency situations will be used in developing a user-friendly computer basedmodeling system. After the modeling system is complete, when the user enters tasks in the software, it will accessMODAPTS, and take the necessary basic motion times and multiply them with the coefficients determined in thiswork. Therefore, the time required to do those tasks in an emergency will be provided to the user.