Research Areas

The ASM Consortium looks at the universe of ASM through seven research areas that fundamentally help customers improve safety, reliability, and efficiency of their process operations. The consistent element running through the seven ASM focus areas is the connection between the system and the human. Abnormal Situations do not always occur because of human error; however, the ASM Consortium has established that to reduce and control abnormal situations, you must account for the strengths and limitations of humans.
This area focuses on measuring, reporting, analyzing, and communicating the causes and effects associated with abnormal situations.
This area focuses on management practices that influence the organizational culture, work processes, staff roles and responsibilities, and valued behaviors as they relate to abnormal situations.
This area focuses on the development and maintenance of a competent work force through training and the creation of a continuous learning environment so that personnel can effectively respond and cope with abnormal situations.
This area focuses on daily communication and situational dialog among plant personnel and explores opportunities to use information technology that improves site-wide coordination in all situations.
This area focuses on all aspects of procedure use such as accessibility, accuracy, clarity, and policy compliance so that personnel can accomplish important tasks at an industrial site, particularly start-up and shut-down.
This area focuses on work place design factors that impact performance of personnel during abnormal situations.
This area focuses on effective design, deployment, and maintenance of hardware and software platforms that support process monitoring, control and support for effective operations.