EURO 2024 Copenhagen
Abstract Submission

EURO-Online login

2523. Workload and Operational Performance in Digital Control Rooms: The Dual Role of Human-automation Interaction

Invited abstract in session TD-7: Behaviour and decision support, stream Behavioural OR.

Tuesday, 14:30-16:00
Room: 1019 (building: 202)

Authors (first author is the speaker)

1. Changyu Men
Research Center for Operations Management, KU Leuven
2. Marijn Verschelde
Department of Economics and Quantitative Methods, IÉSEG School of Management
3. Maud Van den Broeke
Operations and Supply Chain Management, Ieseg School of Management
4. Bart Roets
Traffic Management & Services, Infrabel

Abstract

In today’s business context, employees increasingly experience workload pressure, which impacts operational performance. To alleviate the workload burden and mitigate its potentially negative effects, automation is frequently seen as a solution. However, the mere implementation of automated systems is insufficient, and it is essential to understand employees’ behavior in terms of how they interact with digital automation systems, a topic still understudied in current literature. Our study aims to expose the key role of human-automation interaction in relation to workload and consequential operational performance. For this purpose, we analyze a rich dataset of digital control rooms at a major European rail system operator. This unique and novel setting allows us to examine the impact of controllers' automation intervention willingness on their workload and operational performance. On the one hand, we find that a higher workload increases train delays and that employees who have a tendency to adjust the decision from the automation system experience a significant increase in workload. On the other hand, we find that employees with a tendency to adjust the automated system's decisions exhibit greater resilience to mitigate the negative effects of workload on train delays. These findings underscore the necessity to consider the dual effect of human-automation interaction in relation to workload management and operational performance and the value of studying new settings.

Keywords

Status: accepted

Back to the list of papers