EURO 2024 Copenhagen
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4031. Local knowledge and operational performance: Evidence from a digitized setting

Invited abstract in session TA-11: Behavioral Decision Analysis IV, stream Behavioural OR.

Tuesday, 8:30-10:00
Room: 12 (building: 116)

Authors (first author is the speaker)

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

Abstract

In digital control rooms, controllers' experience significantly impacts their performance. They accumulate expertise through repetition, termed local knowledge, given the stable and repetitive nature of their tasks. Alternatively, they broaden their skills by working across various workstations, termed neighbor knowledge. Our study investigates the role and impact of these types of knowledge on operational performance, and examines the portability of neighbor knowledge within digital control room settings. For this purpose, leveraging a purposefully built comprehensive dataset from a major European rail system operator, we analyze how workstation-based and train-based experiences influence controllers' operational performance, measured by train delay. Our findings reveal that accumulated work at the same workstation improves operational performance, underscoring the importance of local knowledge. Further, when focusing on operational performance regarding passenger trains, we observe higher performance for controllers with more experience in passenger trains, but also lower performance for controllers with more experience in freight trains, indicating potential drawbacks of neighbor knowledge on operational performance.

Keywords

Status: accepted

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