Analysis Techniques For Man-Machine Systems Design

NATO UNCLASSIFIED5 - AC/243(Panet-8)TRf7Volume I1.2 THE OVERALL CONCEPT: THE SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENTPROCESS8. In the development of military systems and equipment, human factors (humanengineering, manpower, personnel training, system safety and health hazards) must be includedin the larger concept of the life cycle of the product. Several project management programmeshave been developed for the integration of human factors with other systems design factors.Typical programmes include MANPRINT, developed by the US Army, IMPACT, developed bythe US Air Force, and the human-systems integration programme being developed by the USDepartment of Defense. Other nations within NATO, including France, FRG, and UK, areadopting simila approaches which are being studied by NATO AC/243 Panel 8 RSG 21. Thesemanagement programmes address manpower, personnel, training, safety and health hazards, andhuman engineering, to improve system performance, reduce human error, and minimize relatedcosts (Booher, 1989).9. Recently the systems development process has also expanded to include disciplinessuch as Concurrent Engineering and Total Quality Management. Concurrent Engineering focuseson the iterative character of the design process. The aim is to have designers consider the systemthroughout its life cycle, from project initiation to system disposal. taking into account allsystems elements with regard to operation, maintenance. production and logistic support, as wellas quality, costs schedules and user requirements (Winner et al., 1988). Human engineering cansupport this approach because the study of system operation and maintenance issues is central tohuman engineering activities. Total Quality Management (TQM) is an approach which seeks tominimize the variance in the quality of products through gearing the attitudes of personnelinvolved in the design and production process towards quality consciousness. Improved designtechniques are conceived as results of these attitude changes (Demming, 1982). Humanengineering can support the TQM approach by helping to identify the characteristics of the usersand their requirements for systems and equipment. Human engineering can also contribute toTQM by identifying those features of human operator performance which contribute to variancein the system product or output, for example, reaction times, the correctness of procedures,correctness of operator decisions, or magnitude of operator errors.10. The starting point of the systems development process for both equipment andpersonnel is the identification of operational needs of the system to be designed. Svstemengineering transforms the operational need into a system description by following a series ofsteps involving analysis, synthesis, trade-off studies. and simulation and test. Although systemsengineering texts do not agree on terminology, the essential steps (from Chambers. 1986) are:* mission requirements analysis* functional analysis* function allocation* synthesis of a system concept* logistic engineering* life cycle cost analysis* optimization (including trade-off studies. cost effectiveness studies. and effectivenessmodelling)* generation of specifications11. The systems development process seldom starts from an operational requirement todevelop a system description by analysis alone. Usually, some concept of the system exists, forexample, as the idea of an attack aircraft, or a sea-based surveillance svstem. or an existingNATO UNCLASSIFIE-D