ABSTRACT
There is a tradition of research being conducted into control room operation to enhance our understanding of the role of the human operator and learn about new ways of supporting those activities. According to Kragt (1994) technological developments in process control have led to dramatic changes in the nature of work practices and behaviors. This development has gone through four generations of control systems: local manual control, local automatic control, centralized panel displays and SCADA (system control and data acquisition) systems. The first revolution was to automate parts of the process so that workers were able to supervise larger areas of plant. The second revolution was to centralize the controls and displays into a single control room, again enabling workers to supervise larger areas of plant. The third revolution was to put all the information at the workers’ fingertips via information technology, further reducing the personnel requirements.
