Considering HOF in design of railway sub-systems is fundamental to achieving a safe and efficient railway. The tools, equipment, procedures, and information provided to workers all need to be fit for purpose and considering HOF during the design process helps to ensure that this will be the case. The design considerations include things like whether the end users can physically reach, see and/or lift the equipment, the usability of any computer interfaces, and the impact of the change on end user workload and situation awareness.
Whether it’s an entirely new fleet of vehicles, a change to a button on a control centre desk, or a new tool for track maintenance, all must be designed. And if they are designed with the train drivers, signallers, controllers, or maintainers in mind, this will enable the design to be more successful.
The primary approach to HOF in Design is to apply a Human Centred Design approach using a Human Factors Integration (or Human Factors Assurance) process. Different industries and sectors have different approaches to this, but in general it involves the production of a plan which describes the scope of the project or change, the end users affected, the relevant areas of human factors to be considered, and the planned human factors activities over the course of the project or change. The objective of the process is to ensure the system is fit for purpose, but also to design out opportunities for human failures, account for user capabilities and limitations, and ensure the design reflects the context of user. The specific human factors activities applied in each design process will vary according to the needs of the project, but they may involve setting user requirements, assessing the reach and visibility of controls and displays, assessing the usability of any software or user interfaces, considering the workload of end users under different conditions, etc.
The railways are increasingly adopting automation which has the potential to maximise human strengths and mitigate human limitations, optimising human performance and decision making. To achieve this there is a need to integrate Human and Organisational factors in the design, build and operation of these automated systems. This can, if appropriate to the system, include decommissioning.
Supplier questions
To help rail organisations a set of questions to ask suppliers has been developed and are set out in the table below – grouped by specific HOF topic areas.
They can be used to inform the procurement of a new automated systems, as items in risk assessments of new automated systems and/or can be used by senior stakeholders within an organisation who want to implement automation. Ultimately, they help to start conversations between rail organisations and suppliers to facilitate the effective integration of Human and Organisational factors and maximise the benefits of automated systems.
| Topic 1: HOF maturity of the system | Topic 2: End users experience and needs | Topic 3: Role and responsibilities of end users | Topic 4: Human Machine Interface (HMI) | Topic 5: Preparation of end-users to take over the system | Topic 6: Decision making support | Topic 7: Training and education support | Topic 8: Human performance | Topic 9: Skills | Topic 10: Organisational changes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What HOF specialist input did you have in system development? | How have you determined the needs of the end-users? Which of the end-user's needs have not been included? Why not? | What will be the role of humans after the automation? | How does the system detect access and how is this managed? (authorised & unauthorised) | In which critical situation humans will have to intervene? What do the humans need to do to intervene? | How can the operator understand the decisions and actions that automated technologies will take? | How can we give people a range of training experiences that help operators better interact with the automation? | How is operator vigilance and situation awareness maintained in your system? | How we ensure the driver or other operator keep their know-how? | How much will your automation require us to change our business process or procedures? |
| What is the Human Readiness Level (e.g how ready the system is for human use) of your product/system? | How do we test the system/product with our own end users and make changes based on the results? | What are the operators’ responsibilities, so they operate the system correctly and safely? | How do you measure the trust of the operator in the automation system? | How can we prepare the operator to be ready to take over when the automation stops working? | How does the system support decision making? What feedback and information is provided by the system to support decision making? | What level of training and support does the operator need? (in addition to existing knowledge and skill) | How to keep the operator aware of the situation? | What errors could an operator make when working with your system that could affect performance or safety? | How will you help manage the transition from the traditional way of working to the new way of working with the system? How long will the transition period be? |
| What is the reliability and quality of the data inputs to the system? How is data verified – by a person or the same/a different system? | How have you assessed/determined that the system meets the end user needs you have identified? How have you measured trust or startle and surprise in your system? | Which functions are allocated to human, to technology and to organisation? | How do provide an ergonomic HMI to provide clear information on who is in charge of the action between the system and the operator? | What is the role and responsibility of the operator when they are required to take over from the system? | What level of decision making does the system have vs the user (what is the system’s sufficiency)? | What training and support do you provide to develop operator knowledge to use the system? | How do you measure and take into account the cognitive underload linked to the new system, monotony, habits? | What skills are needed to operate the system? Are there additional or specific skills that are needed to interface with this system? | How will your system be maintained and updated? What are the HOF requirements for maintenance and eventual decommission? |
| What are your initial assumptions about the machine, the human and the man-machine relationship? | Has the operability of the system been tested in another railway? | How will the user know when they need to take an action or make a decision? | What is the SIL or reliability of your HMI? | What are the transitions between human control and automatic control in your product? | How critical is the decision making, and what are the consequences of a system-based decision error? What controls are in place to mitigate this? | How will operators develop and keep their skills? | How do you ensure that the reaction time of an operator is the same with the new system? | Are there skills that maybe lost from the new system? | What will be the impact on interactions & communication between humans operators working together? |
| How will the system be transferred to the railway organisation along with defined roles and responsibilities of the end-users? | How are the system users made aware of the mode of operation? | What are the possible transitions? | How has the decision making logic of the system been developed and tested? | How will you help the drivers be better able to spot, identify and react to larger amount of real time information? | What changes may be needed to our SMS as a result of this system? | ||||
| How will the operator know that there is a failure of the system? | How are the transitions initiated? (manual discretionary, manual rule-based, automatic) | What will be the expected impact on operator workload in a) normal, b) disrupted, and c) degraded operations How do you measure and take into account the cognitive overload linked operation of the system in degraded and emergency conditions? | Is the system safety relevant or only operationally relevant? | ||||||
| How is system status communicated to the operator to enable effective transition? What happens if the operator does not take over the system? | Do you have a HOF risk register, that includes as a minimum Which risks have been eliminated? Which risks have been transferred/imported? Risk mitigations and residual risk |
[1] (PDF) Human Readiness Levels Explained (researchgate.net)
What are the key HOF issues? In 2015, SNCF launched a major safety program (called PRISME) to improve its overall safety performance. As baseline of this program, the company has deployed a Just & Fair (J&F)...
What are the key HOF issues? The Safety Management Intelligence System, known to many as SMIS, is the rail industry’s on-line health and safety reporting and business intelligence software. It collects and provides...
https://www.orr.gov.uk/media/15720
What are the key HOF issues? In 2015, SNCF launched a major safety program (called PRISME) to improve its overall safety performance. As baseline of this program, the company has deployed a Just & Fair (J&F) approach to create a climate of trust...
What are the key HOF issues? The Safety Management Intelligence System, known to many as SMIS, is the rail industry’s on-line health and safety reporting and business intelligence software. It collects and provides access to information on thousands of...
https://www.orr.gov.uk/media/15720
What are the key HOF issues? In 2015, SNCF launched a major safety program (called PRISME) to improve its overall safety performance. As baseline of this program, the company has deployed a Just & Fair (J&F) approach to create a climate of trust...
What are the key HOF issues? The Safety Management Intelligence System, known to many as SMIS, is the rail industry’s on-line health and safety reporting and business intelligence software. It collects and provides access to information on thousands of...
https://www.orr.gov.uk/media/15720
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