Why do we need an international standard for control rooms?

Control rooms are to be found in process industries, military environments, emergency services, the security industry and the utilities, to name just a few applications. Such centres will range in size from a single operator to well over 200 operators. It is also self-evident that technological advance will differ from sector to sector. The standard now being written on the ergonomics of control room provides a base-line set of requirements for these rooms. It recognises that specialised tasks take place in these rooms and that task design, working environments need to support the activities being undertaken. The first part of this multipart standard addresses the key issue of the process which needs to be applied to ensure that appropriate level of ergonomics is applied to the various stages of the design process. The paper describes the general content of the forthcoming standard