CQUniversity Australia - Elise Crawford

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ENGAGE
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RESEARCH
ACADEMIC

Research Details

Thesis Name: Building Resilience into Railway Control Room Design by Evaluating Stakeholder Confidence

Thesis Abstract:

The introduction of new technology creates significant risk to organisations that rely on safety-critical control systems. Although great lengths are taken to validate a new system’s value and reliability, existing analytical tools focus little attention on the human factors issues that impact operator adoption. Rather, existing tools tend to focus on the limitations of the human, are complex and often vulnerable to misinterpretation. Therefore, to improve safety and to optimise system use, I propose an analytical tool that measures stakeholder confidence by addressing the human factors aspects within a socio-technical system that can moderate end user adoption. This has particular application during times of change, helping organisations to identify areas requiring adjustment, thus empowering business resilience and sustainability.

Why my research is important/Impacts:

My research is important because I propose to offer the railways a tool that can be used to help business operators minimise risk while optimising technology functionality. Today change within organisations is a continual process and this creates a problem for people who are generally resistant to change. The Australian railways continue to experience problems and failures within systems. This is largely due to the fact that railway networks are socio-technical systems and their control rooms are cognitively complex environments. This complexity makes it very difficult if not impossible to trace failures or potential failures within the system. Safety is of critical important to the railway industry, particularly during this period of significant expansion. Emergent focus on systems safety is shifting from managing the systems to one that anticipates, detects and responds quickly to deviations, to achieve sustainable business. Integrating this practice into business operations is known as ‘Resilience Engineering’. If successful, the tool I propose is intended to be used to monitor the confidence levels of stakeholders within a socio-technical system to detect deviations from intended performance. This is particularly important during periods of significant change and when new technologies are being introduced, thereby strengthening company resilience and sustainability. Currently the Australian railways do not have an analytical tool that can fulfil this need which I propose.

Funding/Scholarship: APA