01
Establish the Performance Baseline
Education, operating philosophy, and gap analysis before anything is redesigned. The result is a clear picture of how your people actually perform today, and where the gaps are.
A Fountainhead Advisory Service
Mission-Critical Performance Group™
Human Systems Engineering for Critical Operations
The first stop for complex control rooms. We engineer how your people, procedures, and technology perform together, not just how the room is built.
Why It Matters
The Most Expensive Control Room Mistakes Happen Before Construction Starts
In operations where the margin for error is zero, a well-built room still underperforms when the people inside it are set up to fail. Workflows nobody studied. An alarm philosophy inherited instead of engineered. Decision-making authority that was never clearly mapped. Training that stops the day the room goes live. These aren’t construction defects. They show up as slower response times, missed signals, and burnout, not as opportunities for improvement.
The Expert Behind It
40
Years industrial experience
35
Years in standards bodies
40
Countries with projects delivered
10+
Industries served
David Lee, CEng, FIChemE
Practice Lead, Mission-Critical Performance Group
Mission-Critical Performance Group is led by David Lee, a chartered chemical engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers. He began as an automation engineer in specialty chemicals, working across everything from pneumatic and single-loop controllers to modern DCS and safety instrumented systems, and has spent the last nineteen years consulting full time on operator performance.
That background includes active roles in the international standards bodies that write the guidelines the industry designs to, among them the ISA committees behind ISA-101 for human-machine interface design, ISA-18.2 for alarm management, and ISA-106 for procedural automation. His project history runs across chemicals, oil and gas, utilities, pulp and paper, mining, power generation, pipelines, transportation, and public safety. He serves on the Executive Board of the International Society of Automation and has been elected to serve as ISA President in 2028.
Alarm ManagementHMI DesignControl Room & Console DesignFatigue Risk ManagementWork Team Design
How It Works
Engineering Performance From Philosophy Through Day Two
This is the full arc, start to finish. It isn’t all-or-nothing, though: most engagements start with a single phase and expand as needs grow.
02
Engineer the Human-System Interface
Task analysis and human-factors review of how people, procedures, and technology are meant to work together, independent of any single vendor's equipment.
03
Validate Under Real Conditions
Testing and commissioning reviewed through a human-performance lens, not just a systems checklist, to confirm the room performs the way it was engineered to.
04
Sustain Through Continuous Improvement
Alarm and fatigue management reviews, change management support, and ongoing gap analysis as your operation evolves.
People · Processes · Technology · Environment
The Mission-Critical Performance Model
Four essential elements. One connected model. Greater performance.
01
People
Skilled, engaged and empowered individuals who make it happen.
02
Processes
Well-defined, efficient and repeatable ways of working.
03
Technology
Reliable, secure and fit-for-purpose tools and systems.
04
Environment
Safe, supportive and sustainable conditions for success.
The Right Balance. Sustained Results.
Engagement Options
Scoped to What You Actually Need
A single gap analysis. An alarm philosophy review. A fatigue risk assessment. Any one of these can stand on its own, or combine into a larger program as your needs grow.
Common Starting Points
- Operator Performance Gap Analysis
- Human-Machine Interface Design
- Alarm Management & Rationalization
- Control Room & Console Design
- Fatigue Risk Management
- Work Team & Workload Design
- Organizational Change Management
Beyond Design-Build
Every Fountainhead project includes the design work it takes to build a well-laid-out room: requirements, equipment specification, and systems integration. Mission-Critical Performance Group delivers a separate, advisory-level engagement layered on top of that. It is senior-level work focused on how your people perform inside the room.
Who We Work With
Built Alongside the People Who Run the Room
Architects & Facility Planners
Requirements and conceptual design handed off in a form that drops straight into the building design, not reworked after the fact.
Business & Operations Leaders
A room and a team justified in the language of budget, staffing, and risk, not just layout and equipment lists.
Fountainhead's Build Team
Human-performance requirements that translate directly into the console build, AV integration, and commissioning work Fountainhead delivers.
Built to Last
Performance That Holds Up as Your Operation Changes
The best mission-critical teams don’t just survive growth. They absorb a new system, a second shift, or a leadership change without a performance dip. That only happens when the human side of the operation was engineered for it from the start: documented philosophy and standards, and a continuous-improvement process that keeps performance consistent as everything else changes.
See If Mission-Critical Performance Group Is Right for Your Team
Tell us where you’re starting and we’ll follow up to talk through next steps. No commitment, no sales pitch, just a conversation about how your team performs.