THE ROLE OF SITUATION AWARENESS FOR THE OPERATORS OF PROCESS INDUSTRY

Situation awareness (SA) is commonly described as the challenges encountered by an operator and it appears during the course of interaction with either the process itself or a human machine interface. Application and significance of SA is well established in different production sectors such as aviation, armed forces, and air traffic. The importance and significance of SA for Field Operators (FOPs) and for Control-Room Operators (CROPs) is highlighted and discussed in this paper. The major factors that influence the SA of operators in the process industry are identified, presented, and discussed. Furthermore, the career track of operators with respect to its effect on SA is also analyzed and the concept of Team Situation Awareness (TSA), which is the coordination among different operators (intra and inter teams) is presented