Workplace analysis and business process re-engineering: Railway Control Centres

摘要

Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) in Hong Kong is presently responsible for the safe and efficient transportation of large volumes of people. It is one of the very few mass transit railway operators in the world which can be operated without requiring financial subsidy from the government. In the year 2003, KCRC will open a new 30 kilometer railway that will connect Hong Kong with the northern western suburban New Territories, namely the West Rail (WR) Phase I. Railway monitoring and control functions will be performed via a centralized remote control centre supported by a number of smaller control rooms located in stations and depot. The new control centres will be designed and built to support the new railway operations. In creating each new control centre, it is essential to consider to means to reduce operator error and to enhance the manmachine interface. This paper reviews the techniques used to conceptualise the processes in each control centre given that none of it exists today. These modeling techniques make it possible to understand the interaction between the operators and the proposed control and communications systems to enable decisions on staffing levels, ergonomics and other facilities to be assessed and determined. The approach adopted is in line with the modern concept of Business Process Re-engineering. Normal and emergency operational considerations are also modeled to formulate an accurate representation of the working environment. Based heavily on the systematic methodology adopted by human factors experts, the method has proved very useful in completing the conceptual design for all the operations control centres in the new KCRC West Rail project.