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It has been established that good control room design can only be achieved if considerations on the comfort and safety levels as well as technology to be applied are made. Many are the times when the need for modification arises after a considerable period of successful operation, so flexibility must be targeted by the initial design. Only when managers have a firsthand understanding of their special requirements should they attempt to give the go ahead to the planning team.
The range of possible hazards at the workplace must be anticipated in the preliminary design. The ability to issue commands from operating panels should be assured even when disaster strikes. Large control processes will mostly be run from an isolated location. For small and medium sized outfits however, they can be run from control rooms situated on the same building to save on the capital costs when setting up.
In the due course of service, calamities may present themselves in form of vapor cloud explosions, pressure bursts or exothermic reactions that may initiate fire. Chemical manufacturing sites are governed by stringent guidelines to safeguard against unexpected pressure build up in the conduits. Fittings on the roofs and walls should be made of special material that will expose workers to minimal risk in the event of an explosion.
Many designers prefer locating control panels at strategic points just in case disaster breaks out. It becomes very hard to control plant operations using poorly placed consoles even if the operator is highly experienced. Fire escapes and emergency outlets should be easy to locate and use by physically challenged people.
For efficiency in a production process, there must be a smooth flow of information among the workers. Even when there is heavy human traffic on the floor, certain lines of sight must remain unobstructed. If at all a supervisor is needed, he must take the vantage point that gives least obstruction.
The maintenance team must be well versed with technical aspects of all equipment they encounter at the premises. An error in these scenarios could be costly in terms of human life and physical damage to installed equipment. To thwart such mishaps, consider adopting a straightforward coding for constituent elements on all installations.
For best performance within the job environment, a state of the art lighting system needs to be implemented. It should afford some flexibility that allows adjustment of light intensity to different levels on various parts of the room. Sometimes, poor lighting has been blamed for errors resulting from misinterpretation of process flow information availed on visual display units. A worker who has spent many hours in a room with flickering lights will end up stressed and limited in productivity.
For effective communication to be maintained, noise levels must be regulated by avoiding extremely low or high frequency sounds. There is need to control the manner in which workers interact with the machines in the course of duty. All machinery should have fast response times from the application of an input by a worker and indicators to signal slow reaction. Lastly, the control room design alarms should be accurately interpreted by all staff on board.
The range of possible hazards at the workplace must be anticipated in the preliminary design. The ability to issue commands from operating panels should be assured even when disaster strikes. Large control processes will mostly be run from an isolated location. For small and medium sized outfits however, they can be run from control rooms situated on the same building to save on the capital costs when setting up.
In the due course of service, calamities may present themselves in form of vapor cloud explosions, pressure bursts or exothermic reactions that may initiate fire. Chemical manufacturing sites are governed by stringent guidelines to safeguard against unexpected pressure build up in the conduits. Fittings on the roofs and walls should be made of special material that will expose workers to minimal risk in the event of an explosion.
Many designers prefer locating control panels at strategic points just in case disaster breaks out. It becomes very hard to control plant operations using poorly placed consoles even if the operator is highly experienced. Fire escapes and emergency outlets should be easy to locate and use by physically challenged people.
For efficiency in a production process, there must be a smooth flow of information among the workers. Even when there is heavy human traffic on the floor, certain lines of sight must remain unobstructed. If at all a supervisor is needed, he must take the vantage point that gives least obstruction.
The maintenance team must be well versed with technical aspects of all equipment they encounter at the premises. An error in these scenarios could be costly in terms of human life and physical damage to installed equipment. To thwart such mishaps, consider adopting a straightforward coding for constituent elements on all installations.
For best performance within the job environment, a state of the art lighting system needs to be implemented. It should afford some flexibility that allows adjustment of light intensity to different levels on various parts of the room. Sometimes, poor lighting has been blamed for errors resulting from misinterpretation of process flow information availed on visual display units. A worker who has spent many hours in a room with flickering lights will end up stressed and limited in productivity.
For effective communication to be maintained, noise levels must be regulated by avoiding extremely low or high frequency sounds. There is need to control the manner in which workers interact with the machines in the course of duty. All machinery should have fast response times from the application of an input by a worker and indicators to signal slow reaction. Lastly, the control room design alarms should be accurately interpreted by all staff on board.
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