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"In high-stress emergency situations, human factors
engineering becomes of paramount importance: the operator
needs to have absolute confidence that the equipment
and the procedures are physically manageable."
--Denise
McCafferty
ABS
Staff Consultant
Human and Safety Factors Engineering
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Population
Data Available
One
of the top challenges in implementing "cultural
calibration" for offshore facilities is finding
relevant information on worldwide ethnic populations.
An appendix that contains some anthropometric data for
different populations is currently available in the
"ABS Guidance Notes on The Application of Ergonomics
to Marine Systems" (publication #86), which
can be ordered from ABS
Publications.
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esign for offshore projects occurs primarily
in North America and Europe with the final |
constructed
facility often located offshore of South America, Africa or
Southeast Asia. Physical, psychological, social and cultural
disparities between US/European-based designers and the actual
users of a facility can have an unintended impact on the safety,
operability, and maintainability of an installation. Denise
McCafferty, ABS Staff Consultant, is an expert in human factors
engineering (HFE) and says one of the most common problems caused
by the current design paradigm is safety-related: an operator
does not or cannot act in an emergency because his/her size
and strength capabilities cannot manage the equipment and/or
procedures.
"The
differing physical dimensions of people is an obvious yet
overlooked area of design," said McCafferty. "But
this area probably plays the greatest role in how an operator
reacts in a given situation. In high-stress emergency situations,
human factors engineering becomes of paramount importance:
the operator needs to have absolute confidence that the equipment
and the procedures are physically manageable."
A design
that is appropriate for the anthropometric characteristics
of the nationality operating the installation is essential,
and can specify such details as the heights of valves and
control room consoles and even the design of berthing areas.
Other
important aspects that should be considered during design
include: strength capabilities, manual dexterity, psychology,
managerial and organizational values, climate and variables
such as language and education levels.
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For instance, some
cultures read left to right and others read right to left. This is
important for the orientation of sequential displays and controls.
Culture and
religion should also be incorporated during the design phase. Key
color associations – red for stop and green for go -- are not
as well-recognized in some cultures as they are to US and European
designers. Additionally, the way in which controls are manipulated
varies from culture to culture.
Prayer rooms and separate galleys for food preparation may also
be essential, depending on the nationality and religious preferences
of the crew.
Recreational facilities should be designed given consideration
to the type of recreational activities the crew is likely to engage
in. This can translate into facilities for strenuous physical workouts,
like a gym, or recreational areas more suited to relaxed community
socializing.
ABS and a team of others recently performed a human factors assessment
during the engineering phase of an offshore facility being built
for Southeast Asia. The goal was to decrease human error using HFE
and to assist the offshore facility in maintaining production levels,
such that gas would be available to the end-users 98 percent of
the time. The HFE activities and recommendations made included workspace
design guidelines that took into consideration the physical size
and strength capabilities of the intended end user. Vendors were
given specifications for surface heights, living quarters and other
spaces. Additionally, the selection of personal protective equipment
for workers was selected based on HFE engineering recommendations.
"Human factors engineering can maximize the operating performance
of a facility," said McCafferty, who recently explored cultural
ergonomics and design issues in a paper she co-authored and presented
at last month’s Royal Institute of Naval Architects (RINA)
Human Factors in Ship Design and Operations Conference. The paper
is titled "Human
Factors Engineering and Cultural Calibration for an Offshore Platform
Design: Are There Lessons for the Maritime Industry?"
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