Correlation Analysis of the Communication Characteristics of Operating Teams and the Frequency of Inappropriate Communications in NPPs

Abstract

Communications within operating teams are very important since operators get a great deal of information through communications to conduct huge amount of crucial activities such as exchanging key information or coordinating shared resources in the large process systems such as NPPs, aviation, and railway. Unfortunately, inappropriate communications can cause lack of situational information and lead to serious consequences of the large process systems. In this regard, the communication characteristics of operating teams should be understood to extract meaningful insights to reduce the inappropriate communications. However, existing studies on the communication characteristics seem to have problems since they have characterized team communications from a single perspective. To unravel these problems, an evaluation method to characterize overall team communications is developed using the various matrices of SNA technique in the large process systems, especially NPPs. Also, a new taxonomy of inappropriate communication is developed to calculate the frequency of inappropriate communications. Finally, the correlation analysis of the communication characteristics of operating teams and the frequency of inappropriate communications is performed. In order to perform the correlation analysis, verbal protocol data which are audio-visual recorded under off-normal training sessions by operating teams are used and ISLOCA and LOCV scenarios are used. As a result of the study, the frequency of inappropriate communications is decreased when more operators perform the same types of role with other operators since they can easily and effectively back up each other. Also, a specific operator who is able to contribute the reduction of inappropriate communications is dependent on the tasks which operators perform. In addition, a specific communication content that is able to contribute the reduction of inappropriate communications is dependent on the tasks, but the frequency of ina...