Warship 2015: Future Surface Vessels, 10-11 June 2015, Bath, UK
to be resilient and able to adapt in order to arrive at a solution (thus hiding that the failure has the potential to be more serious than it first appears). The Human Factors specialist is sometimes accused of focussing on small issues that, to the rest of the design team, have little consequence. However, focussing on the ‘knock on' / cumulative effect of single instances of design flaws can not only head off safety issues, but increase operational efficiency (at human and consequent system levels) and has the potential to reduce cost associated with required software/procedure/training changes. Sometimes that involves getting architecture,
into the depths of the system and sometimes it is about optimising
accommodation and recreational space. After all, the ship is both the workplace and home for the ship's company. Small changes to the design, layout and specification of the ship can therefore contribute to the overall goal of through life cost reduction, as well as improvements to quality of life, safety and efficiency.
Human Factors has increasingly found itself represented across all major industry sectors and domains. It was initially viewed as part of the engineering process, often within the safety case for new systems. However, leading industries have increasingly
found that
A structured approach to Human-System Integration has been mandated by the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence [see 8] and the US Department of Defence [see 9] and others are considering the process having seen the value of it. Coupled with the benefits from the design team perspective, it also improves customer satisfaction, supports end-user acceptance of the design, and it reduces design risk by identifying issues early that would have been expensive to change later.
adopting a
Human Factors Integration (HFI) approach during the design activity offers the potential to address safety and usability concerns, and also to reduce the cost associated with the financial burden of re-design after the system enters
service. If engineered components are not
integrated correctly, then the system as a whole may not always function as intended. The importance of Human Factors therefore needs to be not positively
only represented within the Design Team, but also well
understood in terms of what the benefits of the discipline can bring. This however can only occur within an environment that allows the process of HFI to be discussed and, of course, for the Human Factors team member to
demystify some of the preconceptions
commonly associated with Human Factors. 4. A SYSTEMS ENGINEERING APPROACH
If we examine the nature of how Human Factors is applied, we can see that it has much in common with the Systems Engineering
process whilst offering approach examines new
perspectives on how to more effectively manage human performance at the design and operation levels. Much as engineers focus on the requirements and constraints of a system, a Human Factors requirements
and inherent constraints of both the
engineered and human elements of the system, thus supporting the development of a robust solution that allows for both elements to be integrated effectively.
As with other engineering disciplines it is necessary to be precise and methodical to ensure that the end result is well considered. In HFI this is achieved by grouping the main themes of the discipline into domains. However, as the main principles behind the HFI process have been
5. COMMON PROBLEMS
The most likely Human Factors issues in warship design still tend to read like the index of a typical Human Factors standard - and that is before the more detailed consideration of the complex system weaknesses. This in itself is telling, and at least historically the crew has been expected to compensate and adapt to inadequate design with the often cited mitigations of training or procedures. However, training or mitigation should not be used as mitigations for fundamentally poor design [10] especially in high performing and safety critical systems such as a modern warship. The ability to adapt to a given situation is seen as a human strength, yet the ability to cope should not be equated with being able to perform.
Even the comparatively simple concept of considering body size (anthropometry) in design is often overlooked, leading to valves which cannot be reached by some seafarers, consoles with controls beyond arm’s length or equipment which cannot be easily maintained. The problem is that in isolation these types of concerns can sound small and are often accepted by the users. However, they do lead to real world problems and even these simple shortfalls contribute to human error potential. Although a single design deficiency alone could directly lead to an accident, it is more normally a
HFI should therefore be seen as an integral part of Systems Engineering, and this is important in ensuring that the HF viewpoint is considered throughout the life- cycle. However, the range and scope of potential Human Factors issues means that, like safety, Human Factors is something that the entire design team need to be thinking about. Although specialist skills are required for some elements of the subject, what is needed throughout the team is an initial awareness of the basic principles.
developed in parallel around the world this has led to some differences in terminology, but
the underpinning
principles remain constant even where the descriptors slightly vary. For example, in the US HSI process there are nine domains, whereas in the UK Human Factors Integration (HFI) process discusses only seven (as seen in Figure 1). However, what is of note is that the UK domains already include the concepts of habitability and survivability, and that the point is therefore not
the
naming of the domains but rather the need to break down the human element and to manage it within a series of interrelated functions.
© 2015: The Royal Institution of Naval Architects
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