Light Water Sustainability Program: Optimizing Information Automation Using a New Method Based on System-Theoretic Process Analysis

Optimizing Information Automation Using a New Method Based on System-Theoretic Process Analysis: Tool Development and Method Evaluation

“…A prior report (Joe et al, 2023a) described an analytic process referred to as OSM. The purpose of OSM is to develop a control structure comprising all relevant organizational components involved in a particular system, along with their control, feedback, and communication linkages.…”

“…As mentioned previously, one new aspect of this report relative to the research presented previously in Joe et al (2023a) is that the LWRS Program researchers would develop an evaluation plan and evaluate the effectiveness of using STPA to optimize Information Automation in collaboration with an industry partner. Previous sections of this report, including parts of Section 1, the objectives described in Section 2, and the approach described in Section 3 describe the evaluation plan we developed.…”

“…Information automation is the customization and delivery of information for a work process, thereby providing users with intuitive, actionable information based on continuous measurements of plant performance. A prior report, Joe et al (2023a), describes the initial efforts to develop tools and techniques based on a) systems-theoretic constructs underlying sociotechnical systems theory in general and the Systems-Theoretic Accident Modeling and Processes (STAMP) approach (Leveson, 2011) in particular, b) human systems integration principles, and c) artificial intelligence/machine learning/natural language processing-based technologies. This report is a continuation of that work and describes our efforts to evaluate the effectiveness of using STAMP to optimize information automation.…”

“…As stated previously in Joe et al (2023a), the goals of this research project are:  Develop an accurate cost-effective issue resolution process that utilizes information automation and AI to evaluate numerous sources of relevant internal and external plant data to identify adverse performance trends and weak signals that expose weakening or nonexistent control structures.  Employ a proactive analysis method such as STPA to analyze the performance data for precursors to significant events.…”