Go and tidy your (control) room

I have told my kids to tidy their rooms on many occasions. I have also told my clients to do the same for their control rooms. I have to say that I have been fairly unsuccessful in both instances but I do feel that if control rooms were kept clean and tidy the actions being implemented currently to handle the COVID-19 crisis may have been a little easier.

I am not always entirely sure what a client expects when they ask me to conduct a human factors assessment of their control rooms. From what I find sometimes I can only imagine that most of the person asking me to do it has not actually visited the control room themselves.

A sizeable number of the control rooms I visit are a disgrace. They have become untidy because there is too much stuff in them; with the knock-on effect being that cleaning becomes difficult. Most are not so bad but have room for significant improvement.

I have a good relationship with my clients and I get a lot of repeat work. However, my comments about tidiness and cleanliness of control rooms seem to be viewed as trivial. Even if some action is taken as a result of my comments the improvement is only short lived. But I do not see anything trivial about providing a pleasant and hygienic place for people to work, especially when those people are probably performing the most critical job on the site.

Now with the current restriction due to COVID-19 I am not being allowed anywhere near any control rooms, and quite rightly so. But I know that companies are being very cautious about infection control and I hear talk about disinfection at each shift change. Just imagine how much easier that would have been if the control room had been tidy and clean already.

The photos below have been taken in control rooms in the last 12 months. Obviously identities are hidden to protect the guilty.

Should that be in here?

One of my common complaints is that there is just too much stuff in control rooms. It seems to be viewed as OK that if a control room operators has ever used and item or may need to in the future that it can just be left there, just in case. This accumulates very quickly. Working amongst clutter is stressful and how can you clean surfaces if they are all covered in junk?

How do you clean that?

Use of unsuitable materials, tolerance of damaged surfaces and tangles of cables all make it impossible to clean control rooms properly.

 Is that healthy?

Operators often complain that the air conditioning supplying their control rooms does not heat properly in the winter or cool properly in summer. More worryingly at this time is that the cleanliness of the system and hence the quality of the air supplied is often called into question. It seems likely that COVID-19 can be spread quite effectively by air conditioning systems.

Another hygiene concern is keyboards. In control rooms they are used by many different people so any contamination is a concern for infection control. Hygiene issues are particularly critical when you realise how often operators eat in their control rooms.

Design implications

Like most things, it is easier to keep control rooms clean and tidy if considered during design. The latest edition of EEMUA 201 “Control Rooms: a guide to their specification, design, commissioning and operation” published 2019 makes it clear that a key activity when designing a control room is to identify what it should accommodate so that every item is properly integrated. Also, it includes a short section on cleaning and maintenance of control rooms; highlighting why these are important considerations during design.

Spot the difference

I know recommendations tidy and clean a control room is only a short term solution and a supporting system is required if the improvements are to be sustained. One of my suggestions for this is borrowed from 5s and Lean. It is the concept of the ‘visual workplace’ which uses visual devices to control the workplace to make sure it is kept as designed to maximise efficiency.

For a control room this is really simple. Tidy it up, remove the junk and clean it. Then take photos of how you want it to be. You can then regularly check its actual state with the photos and quickly identify anything that has appeared. You can then decide whether it should remain, in which case the photos need to be updated or whether the new items should be removed.

If we compare these two photos we can see immediately that the amount of free space on the desk has reduced. Are the new book and clock necessary? Is it appropriate to have a mug of drink on the desk?

But these photos show a couple of other changes. The original log sheet has been replaced by a laptop. Is that a good idea? Has this change been introduced properly? Also, why has a webcam been added? Is this a new distraction for the operator? I believe control rooms are so important to our operations that any change, no matter how minor, should be subject to formal management of change. Current reality is that major changes often occur without any assessment. When I ask clients to provide an ‘as-built’ drawing of their control room they invariably cannot; and often when they produce one I usually find it is years or even decades out of date.

It is important

Control room operators perform one of the most critical jobs at any site, particularly those with hazardous materials and processes. We need them to be at the top of their game, all of the time; physically and psychologically. Their working environment is a significant performance influencing factor and we should not tolerate clutter and dirt at any time. With the current pandemic the ability to clean control rooms effectively will significantly reduce the risk of operators infecting each other. A major outbreak amongst operators could be catastrophic to any business with potentially worse consequences to the individuals and their families.

Removing unnecessary items from the control room will make it far easier to clean and prevent unnecessary visits to the control room. Having an effective archiving system can reassure people that paperwork that has been hoarded in the control room ‘just in case’ will still be available if required in the future. Providing suitable storage for every item that has to remain in the control room will reduce the clutter on the console desk and make it far easier to clean. Consider providing each operator with their own set of keyboards and mice (this may not be practical) and make sure the ones used can be cleaned easily. Cleaning the control room at every shift handover should become the new normal - and it would be nice if this continued after the risks of COVID-19 subside in the future.