Performance Indicators

Annunciators Make Ineffective Performance Indicators

Annunciators make poor performance indicators because they are driven by events rather than being used to drive performance. From a human factors perspective, annunciators exist to compensate for our inability to monitor large amounts of changing data effectively all the time. Thus, an annunciator is provided to warn the operator when a parameter exceeds some boundary. Note that the annunciator has limited value once in the alarm state because it cannot tell you anything else about the situation other than its still in the alarm state...

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On Annunciator Inadequacy

Imagine a control room where the sum of all the indicators was reduced to eight or ten key indicators which, through competent design, provided the operator adequate information for control of the plant. Annunciators would not be needed unless it was intended or expected that the operator would not focus his attention on the indications...

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On Performance Indicators

"Task based measurements are finite Cartesian interpretations that restrict you to incremental change. You can only make the process more efficient. Outcome based measurements ask "Why" instead of "How" and open up the possibility for quantum changes in performance because they are not preconditioned to accept that the process has to exist at all."


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