Exploring the consequences of human multitasking in industrial automation projects: a tool to mitigate impacts – Part II

Each industrial automation project includes tasks that strongly depend on human factors, many of which may belong to the critical path or chain of the project. Multitask­ing significantly affects human productivity. The reduction in productivity has a direct result of delaying the primary task, which may cause an overall delay to the project with cost and time overruns. A project should be seen with respect to a global environment, such as that of a company, where resources are shared among its portfolio of projects. Although multitask­ing might have negative results, it is something that cannot be eliminated but can be mitigated by project managers. This article presents the effects of multitasking on human productivity, especially when the tasks are complex, like programmable logic controller (PLC)/supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software development. Using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method, a simple tool is created to be used by project managers, in order to assist them in decision-making. Criteria that influence these decisions are referenced, and their priority vectors are proposed. In addition, some real examples are given. Project managers face a complex situation when they are asked to decide on the allocation of resources and priori­ties among different projects. Parameters that are difficult to predict in real situations may have a significant role in the decision-making process. There are a lot of published works based on AHP appli­cations in different fields, but there is a gap in the field of industrial automation projects and the related project manager’s decision-making. This study focuses on these decision-making processes that determine which tasks should be paused or not for a better allocation of resources, taking into account the global environment of a technical company. The tool can be implemented with changing criteria and priority vectors to adapt to different types of projects. Future research could identify additional criteria and subcriteria with dif­ferent priority vectors, depending on different project specifications. This article is the extended version (Part II) of CCC 2017 Procedia Engineering paper.