Safe design of mobile equipment traffic management systems

Designing and implementing safe, efficient and operator-centred traffic management systems for mobile equipment, other vehicles and pedestrians is of key importance in almost every industrial domain. Such systems rarely develop successfully on their own; whilst standards and guidelines do exist, they are often not stringently and comprehensively employed in all industrial settings, and additional guidance to managers responsible for traffic management would be beneficial.Building on models of the elements required for effective traffic management, the work described in this paper used a review of the literature, case studies from a variety of different industrial domains and operator-centred safe design processes to develop a set of 50 human element questions to help ensure mobile equipment safety. The process was iterative, and involved subject matter expert feedback, trialling the draft question set in an audit of several sites following a major incident and incorporating emerging findings about the possible use of new assistive technologies (such as collision detection systems).Relevance to industryIn terms of industrial applications, the resultant question list can be used to identify potential problem areas, primarily safety but also partly inefficiency, regarding mobile equipment interactions with pedestrians, infrastructure or other equipment. Potential problem areas revealed could then undergo more detailed investigation and possible correction using risk assessment techniques or similar.