March 19, 2009 – The Abnormal Situation Management (ASM) Consortium announced the first in a series of planned ASM Consortium publications, “Effective Operator Display Design” which provides guidelines for improving plant operator displays. Written by and for the chemical and refining industries, the book is a compilation of real-world experiences from consortium members who have implemented human-machine interface (HMI) design best practices in their own plants. This knowledge has been organized as a set of structured best practices to guide design and deployment of operator interfaces that enable effective operator behaviors.
In the area of HMI design, the ASM Consortium guidelines are targeted toward operations managers, operators, process engineers, system design engineers and safety and reliability engineers charged with improving interaction between automation systems and the people controlling the processes. “Plant incidents are estimated to cost the chemical and refining industries anywhere between 3-8 percent of revenue, and poor or ineffective operator displays can play a major role in those incidents,” said Peggy Hewitt, ASM Consortium director. “Research shows that improving HMI displays using ASM guidelines improves the operator’s ability to prevent, respond to and mitigate potentially hazardous incidents.
‘Effective Operator Display Design’ shares those insights to help keep plants running safely and efficiently.” Price: $150Founded in 1994, the Abnormal Situation Management Consortium seeks to create a new paradigm for the operation of complex industrial plants through research programs, development and deployment of new products and services, and information exchange that improve plant operations’ ability to prevent and respond to abnormal situations. The ASM Consortium is comprised of leading industrial manufacturing companies and led by Honeywell.