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An investigation of the role of a work analysis in the design of automation in railway systems

Becht, Holger LU (2016) FLMU06 20152
Division of Risk Management and Societal Safety
Abstract
The past decades has seen automation rapidly increasing in the railway industry, with the "perceived" motivations of faster services, economy, safety, and energy efficiency. However these motivations often obscures the fact that automation also create new burdens and complexities for the operators and maintainers (Bainbridge, 1983; Woods, 1996). Joint Cognitive Systems (JCS) (Woods & Hollnagel, 2006) was derived to address the challenges faced with complex systems.
Several studies have shown the benefits of applying JCS thinking in various industries (Boy & Schmitt, 2013; Effken, Kim, & Shaw, 1997; Hall, Shattuck, & Bennett, 2012; Militello, Dominguez, Lintern, & Klein, 2009), and it is therefore of interested to investigate the... (More)
The past decades has seen automation rapidly increasing in the railway industry, with the "perceived" motivations of faster services, economy, safety, and energy efficiency. However these motivations often obscures the fact that automation also create new burdens and complexities for the operators and maintainers (Bainbridge, 1983; Woods, 1996). Joint Cognitive Systems (JCS) (Woods & Hollnagel, 2006) was derived to address the challenges faced with complex systems.
Several studies have shown the benefits of applying JCS thinking in various industries (Boy & Schmitt, 2013; Effken, Kim, & Shaw, 1997; Hall, Shattuck, & Bennett, 2012; Militello, Dominguez, Lintern, & Klein, 2009), and it is therefore of interested to investigate the practicalities of applying JCS theory in the railway industry.
Underpinning the JCS approach, is the need to study and analyse the work domain (i.e. the field of practice) to provide a functional description of the objectives, goals, and constraints of a work domain that can be used to define the work strategies and associated cognitive and collaborative challenges.
This thesis investigates what the role of a work analysis is within the context of JCS design. Two qualitative case studies were undertaken to investigate the role of a work analysis for the design of automation in railway systems. Although the results highlighted that understanding 'work as done' is critical to the design of a JCS, there were also various deficiencies, challenges and inconsistencies identified with using the outcomes of the work analysis that could hinder the success of a JCS. (Less)
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author
Becht, Holger LU
supervisor
organization
course
FLMU06 20152
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
FLMU06, system safety, human factors, automation, Joint cognitive systems, work domain analysis
language
English
id
8518194
date added to LUP
2016-01-12 14:36:08
date last changed
2016-01-13 15:13:42
@misc{8518194,
  abstract     = {{The past decades has seen automation rapidly increasing in the railway industry, with the "perceived" motivations of faster services, economy, safety, and energy efficiency. However these motivations often obscures the fact that automation also create new burdens and complexities for the operators and maintainers (Bainbridge, 1983; Woods, 1996). Joint Cognitive Systems (JCS) (Woods & Hollnagel, 2006) was derived to address the challenges faced with complex systems.
Several studies have shown the benefits of applying JCS thinking in various industries (Boy & Schmitt, 2013; Effken, Kim, & Shaw, 1997; Hall, Shattuck, & Bennett, 2012; Militello, Dominguez, Lintern, & Klein, 2009), and it is therefore of interested to investigate the practicalities of applying JCS theory in the railway industry.
Underpinning the JCS approach, is the need to study and analyse the work domain (i.e. the field of practice) to provide a functional description of the objectives, goals, and constraints of a work domain that can be used to define the work strategies and associated cognitive and collaborative challenges. 
This thesis investigates what the role of a work analysis is within the context of JCS design. Two qualitative case studies were undertaken to investigate the role of a work analysis for the design of automation in railway systems. Although the results highlighted that understanding 'work as done' is critical to the design of a JCS, there were also various deficiencies, challenges and inconsistencies identified with using the outcomes of the work analysis that could hinder the success of a JCS.}},
  author       = {{Becht, Holger}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{An investigation of the role of a work analysis in the design of automation in railway systems}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}