HP Situation Awareness Displays Work!

It’s important to test your display designs and check results. Ultimately with any project we want to see an improvement in operator performance. That is why we call our displays High Performance Displays.

During a study of traditional P&ID displays versus HP displays, we found that operators could detect a problem – before the alarm activated, 10% of the time using their own displays, 48% of the time using the high-performance display. The operators were successful at managing the problem, preventing the consequence of the alarm 70% of the time using their own displays and were successful 96% of the time using the HP display.

Also, there was a major decrease in the amount of time it took the operators to detect, diagnose, and respond to the abnormal situation: Took an average of 18 minutes to solve the problem with their own displays and only 10 minutes using the HP display.

It pays big dividends to have your alarms in order first. The alarms determine what goes on the new displays. A managed alarm system coupled with a new overview of the process will truly improve process management. Operators must be involved with the design process, they should use a task analysis methodology guided by a highly experienced facilitator. This is more than storyboarding.

Situation awareness is critical when consolidating, remodeling, or designing a new control room. This process is backed by an HMI philosophy (site standard) and a (style guide) with an object library that is used specifically for situation awareness and operator response.

Operator ownership is critical, so we start with one console. He/She becomes the site champion and the advocate for change. This trickles down throughout the organization. To get operators on board, we spend a day with them, training them, showing examples so they can see the difference and understand the concept before we start the design process. Operator ownership is critical. We get them involved early so they stay involved during the design phase.

Without operator acceptance, you could be adding more distractions into the control room.

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