Human Factors: The Impact on Industry and the Environment

New technology is evolving rapidly, creating new environmental and industrial challenges that must be considered. Technology continues to focus on the demands of industry to increase efficiency and production output. At the same time, industry must quickly adapt to new technologies in order to compete and grow and also face the increased awareness for the need to evaluate and mitigate environmental impact. Recent studies indicate that the use of automation in the workplace will nearly double in the next few years. If we look at the control room as being the core of the industrial environment, the focus was previously on the physical and automated components. Little focus has been on the humans that control this rapidly evolving technology, and there is still not enough focus on the most critical component that can not only impact production and output but also create a negative impact on the environment as a result of human error that could have been avoided. It is time to take a step back and look at what impact the humans are having on the environment as a result of the rapidly changing technology.