Ergonomic Design of Control Centers / Control Desks

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Control room is the most utilized area of the plant. This is being used by operators for regular operation of the plant, by maintenance engineers to troubleshoot, engineering team to optimize and update plant operations and plant managers to review the performance of the plant on day-to-day basis.

Control desks are being utilized on 24x7 basis. Hence its critical to follow & develop ergonomic design of control room which is pleasant and very comfortable to use.

Any dignitary visit is often ends up reaching at control room. CR provides the holistic view of the plant & its engineering.

ISO 11064 standards outline the ergonomic design of control centers covering:

1.        Principles for the design of control centers

2.        Principles for the arrangement of control suites

3.        Control room layouts.

4.        Layout & dimensions of workstations

5.        Environmental requirements for control centers

6.        Principle of evaluations of control centers.

Typically following is expected to be taken care of while designing the control rooms/ control desks:

Control room layout:

1.        Spacing: this is critical factor, control room should be spacious enough not only to cover the regular operations but to accommodate visitors, future space for any additional equipment’s.

2.        Overall appearance: Design can be based on modern outlook or considering local cultural architecture.

3.        Desk arrangements in the room: Very important to utilize the space wisely providing proper viewing distance and access.

4.        Lighting in the room: Enhanced lighting ensuring no glairs is important to be considered.

5.        Sound and light effects: Roof decorative lighting with soundproof tiles considerations are few to be looked into.

6.        Access requirements of frequently used components like printers, walkways etc.

Control desk design covers:

1.        Height & width of the desk, viewing angles, Construction material.

2.        Ease of access of desk components, monitors, bigger screen viewing, free leg movements

3.        Strain free adjustable chairs for operator’s comfort

4.        Access : Access should be designed in such a way, its not affecting other operating teams.

Typical design starts with the space allocation for operator room, engineering room, server room, managers room and operator training rooms if any.

2D layouts proposals are developed based on the room sizes, dimensions and rooms locations. This covers few proposals of different type of desk layouts, includes basic requirements of entry and exits, including emergency exiting. This typically provides all dimensions.

Once 2D Layout is zeroed in, 3D layouts are worked out covering a colour, types of desk, materials, provide viewing angle details and provide good 3D pictorial view of the control room for approvals  (Typically for large control rooms).

Typical documents developed are:

1.        Layout drawings

2.        Console drawings covering isometric views.

3.        Specs for proposed material

4.        Acoustics assessment (where specified)

5.        Lux report

6.        Traffic route considerations.

If required by specs, walk through video model is developed which shows multiple views from left/right/front/back/top/side views showing all components in the room.

While designing the rooms its very important to take care of the routing of different services with the room like HVAC, Lighting, power cabling, communication cabling, false flooring/false roofing etc. Attached pictures will shed light on work involved.

What is your experience on control room/control desk designs? Please share your thoughts and important considerations

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