Posts Tagged ‘UCDS’
SourceGas Pipeline Complies with PHMSA 192.631
The following was written by Bill Stephens of SourceGas. SourceGas LLC (“SourceGas”) and its subsidiaries serve approximately 425,000 customers and operate over 19,340 miles of natural gas distribution, gathering and transmission pipeline, as well as storage facilities in Arkansas, Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming. SourceGas and its subsidiaries also provide gas transportation, in-home HVAC and appliance service…
Read MoreNews from UCDS!
Welcome to this month’s news from UCDS. In the midst of a growing workload, the team has managed to get some well-deserved vacation time in, so everyone is ready for a busy couple of months. I know many of you are interested in what sort of projects we are working on. I think it would…
Read MoreUCDS news June 2014 – High Performance HMI, Graphics and Upcoming.
UCDS has been extremely busy on a full range of projects covering all of our standard offerings. We are delighted that customers have been enthusiastic about our solution for overview displays. We decided to get into this market space having seen so many failures at customer sites and talking to disappointed operators. We have had…
Read MoreWelcome to UCDS’s blog!
Welcome to UCDS’s blog! A place where we pass on to our current customers, prospective customers and friend’s some insight into what we have been and are doing and also to provide some insight into the people and company. UCDS has the best people who love what they are doing and are passionate about it. …
Read MoreOperator Training
Quote: “People should not be trained until they get it right; they need to be trained until they do not get it wrong”. In the industrial workplace, few people begin a job fully trained. Even when people have prior work experience, they will still need to learn the many nuances of the new work environment…
Read MoreFatigue is a real issue in operations
Fatigue is not just feeling physically drained or tired; it’s also a state of impaired alertness, attentiveness, affecting your mental and physical performance. Being fatigued also includes having reduced motor coordination, and slower reaction time. When we are fatigued, there is a loss of environmental awareness, impairment of cognitive/logical reasoning skills, poor judgment and diminished…
Read MoreUCDS news for September 2013
Hello and welcome to the User Centered Design Services news for September 2013. Thank you for your interest in what we do and for allowing us to have fun while we do really important and serious work that makes a difference. The team has just completed a CRM review that has passed the PHMSA auditors.…
Read MoreWorkshops by UCDS
UCDS offers a full line of consulting services to evaluate your current plant condition, make realistic and achievable recommendations for improvement and aid you in implementing our recommendations. An integral part of this line is a set of workshops that provide an introduction to the basic principles and best practices relating to our services. The…
Read MoreWatch UCDS video about staff studies
Learn about the UCDS Console Operator Staffing Assessment
Do you ever wonder how many console operators you really need? Are your console positions equally loaded? Can you reduce the number of console operators and still safely operate the plant? Industry comparisons indicate you have too many operators, but the Union screams anytime you discuss staffing reductions. The only guideline you have is that…
Read MoreUser Centered Control Building Services
UCDS offers a full line of consulting services to evaluate your current plant condition, make realistic and achievable recommendations for improvement and aid you in implementing our recommendations. An integral part of this line is a set of control room design services that provide guidance at all phases of a building project on industry best…
Read MoreUser Centered Situation Awareness Workshop and Training
The UCDS Situation Awareness workshop covers the following topics: The International Ergonomic Standards for Control Rooms (ISO 11064) What is in an Operating Philosophy Common Control Room Issues including Distractions, Noise, Lighting, and Operator Vigilance Alarm Management and Human Computer Interface (HCI) design. How to design communications for a centralized control building Relationship between CCR…
Read MoreControl all your PC’s, consoles, cameras, screens, and devices remotely from a single keyboard
You can reduce PC clutter, noise, heat, cables, etc by storing all your hardware in a climate controlled storage center and still control all your devices / consoles with a single keyboard. This keyboard gives you access to all the information from a single source. You could have information stored in different locations, cities, or…
Read MoreUCDS Field Shelter Design services
In the past, all control was done from field shelters. A control system upgrade has enabled the site to move to a new control facility. The field shelters will still be used by field operators for important functions such as maintenance coordination, issuing work permits, sampling, new employee training, but are poorly designed for these…
Read MoreLearn More about Management Systems
User Centered Design Services is an associate member of the Abnormal Situation Management Consortium®; Ian Nimmo was previously the Program Director for the Consortium and led all of the benchmarking studies for the consortium. Through his involvement in numerous cross-industry site studies at Power Plants, Refineries, Petro Chemical and Iron and Steel manufacturing plants, he…
Read MoreSteps in reducing human error
Human error is some that impacts so many areas of operations and effectiveness. We have designed several tools, workshops and assessments to identify where human error is causing the biggest problems in your operations. Here are some steps to reduce human errors include: addressing the conditions and reducing the stressors which increase the frequency of…
Read MoreReducing Human Error
Reducing human error involves far more than taking disciplinary action against an individual. There are a range of measures which are more effective controls including design of the job and equipment, procedures, and training. Our Work Team Design Assessment will help not just evolve a new organization and culture but also develop and organizational culture…
Read MoreSoftware to measure the fatigue risk of shift workers
UCDS partnered with Circadian to offer a software tool that allows customers to measure the fatigue risk of shift workers. This allows management to schedule the right workers during the right shift to reduce the risk of a fatigue related incident. Press release: Shift Worker and Fatigue (measuring the Risk) Operator fatigue is a critical…
Read MoreHuman Factors books to read
It’s 2013 folks…and we are off and running! Well, that’s the theory anyways. As for me, I have not done any running for a while. Last year while travelling the world I ruptured my Achilles tendon which was not much fun. When I got back from Hawaii last December, I went straight to the hospital…
Read MoreThe Need for Good Situation Awareness
This is an excerpt the the document: Abnormal Situation Awareness The Need for Good Situation Awareness Ian Nimmo, President The goal in designing a control room is to create a work environment that promotes high levels of vigilance and situation awareness. Operators are vigilant when they are alert and prepared to act. They have a…
Read MoreMore of UCDS is Coming!
Another new month, I can’t keep up! We had a great time at Sedona, AZ at our AGM and planning for next year. Melinda, husband and three girls joined us for an evening. The twins dominated. So cute. I have had a busy month with a visit to Sweeny, Texas for a High Performance HMI…
Read MoreHappy Thanksgiving
Another busy month for UCDS with lots of travel! I made Chairman (100,000 miles) on US Airways already for next year and Dave is close behind me. I have recently spoken at a couple of big events. I was at the Emerson User Group where I presented a paper on HMI design. It covered why…
Read MoreImplementing a High-Performance HMI Philosophy and Culture
Little thought has been given to human factors in the control room layout, the operator stations and even less to the user interface design. Operators may be oriented to “normal,” steady-state plant operations, but are ill-prepared to deal with abnormal situations when they arise. This includes scheduled shutdowns and start-ups that today happen at increasingly…
Read MoreImplementing a High-Performance HMI Philosophy and Culture
Little thought has been given to human factors in the control room layout, the operator stations and even less to the user interface design. Operators may be oriented to “normal,” steady-state plant operations, but are ill-prepared to deal with abnormal situations when they arise. This includes scheduled shutdowns and start-ups that today happen at increasingly…
Read MoreLots and lots of Control Rooms!
This last month has been interesting and adventurous for David and myself. We had two wonderful weeks in Chile; the hotel we stayed at had a great view of the Ocean. We then went and spent a few days in one of the World’s biggest Copper Mines. It was amazing to observe over 10,000 contractors…
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