User Centered Design Services, Inc. has experience with a tremendous number of control upgrade projects. We can provide an expert, independent evaluation of the pros and cons of upgrade concepts and aid the Client in selecting the most appropriate upgrade approach for the site. Since we have no alliances with any vendor, but work well with all of them, you can be assured of an unbiased evaluation.
The Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s (PHMSA) Control Room Management (CRM) rule requires pipeline operators to create written policies and procedures for the control room. Specifically, affected pipeline operators must:
With the help of UCDS, pipeline operators have the opportunity to meet or exceed compliance requirements and implement operating best practices that enhance reliability and safety. UCDS offers high performance SCADA displays and alarm management engineering documents and project facilitation, with an approach that focuses on our situational awareness and human factors philosophies, including shift handover procedures. Our partnership with Circadian allows us to provide a fatigue risk management software tool that will calculate fatigue risk and provides all three required levels of Fatigue Risk Management System (FRMS) control: 1) Compliance, 2) Risk, and 3) Investigation.
User Centered Design Services can help you begin the process of determining if your automation upgrade project is feasible. We can bring our extensive expertise to your site to help determine the needs of your facility, the scope of the project, the best way to integrate Best Practice solutions, and the most cost effective solution. We perform this study with the aim of developing a justification to aid in your front end loading process.
User Centered Design Services, Inc. has experience with a wide variety of architects and control component vendors. We provide an expert, independent evaluation of architects, instrument and control vendors, I&E contractors, graphic implementers, advanced application software vendors, operations and business support software, control console and furniture vendors, overview screen technology suppliers, and plant communication equipment suppliers. Since we have no alliances with the vendors of these products or services, but work well with all of them, you can be assured of an unbiased evaluation.
If you find yourself in need of expert testimony, User Centered Design Services, Inc. can help. As a recognized expert in the field of safety systems and human factors, UCDS President Ian Nimmo is available to assist you in your legal efforts.
As a small, responsive consulting company, we pride ourselves on providing personalized treatment for each client. If you see something in our briefs or on our website that interests you, but it’s not exactly what you had in mind, we are happy to customize any of our services to fit your needs. Please contact us to discuss how we can help your facility achieve operations excellence.
User Centered Design Services, Inc. will provide an analytical process for determining the specific behaviors required of humans in operator-machine systems. This involves determining the detailed performance required of people and equipment, and determining the effects of environmental conditions, malfunctions, and other unexpected events on both. We analyze the behavioral steps to be performed by people within these terms:
Information presented to, and received by, the workers;
The processing of that information (and previously stored information, goals, intentions, etc.) to interpret the system status and to decide what action, if any, to take; and
Required worker inputs to the system, which include other workers, as well as the equipment
For more information, please contact us at SMaddox@mycontrolroom.com