Analysis Techniques For Man-Machine Systems Design

NATO UNCLASSIFIED-15- AC/243(Panel-8)TRnVolume ISURVEY AND REVIEWCHAPTER 2OF ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES2.1 SURVEY OF USE OF HUMAN ENGINEERING ANALYSISTECHNIQUES23. To conduct the survey, human engineering analyses techniques identified inavailable human engineering guides and regulatory documents were categorized into one of fivesequential stages of analysis. These stages were: Mission Analysis, Function Analysis, FunctionAllocation, Task Analysis, and Performance Prediction (Fig. 2.1). Twenty-four techniquesdescribed in human engineering guides were identified and assigned to one of these stages ofanalysis. The project phases used by the RSG member nations were identified itd used todevelop a common, five-phase, project development cycle. The phases were: Analysis ofExisting Systems, Planning New Systems, Preliminary Design, Design, and Test & Evaluation.The five categories (stages) of human engineering analvsis technique and the five project phaseswere used to create an applications matrix (Table 2.1). A questionnaire was issued to companiesand organizations known to employ human factors specialists in the seven participating nations,asking them to identify those human engineering analysis techniques used in specific weaponssystem development projects, and to comment on their effectiveness, ease of use, and so on.mission 8 &scenario \~ >F e :ranalysis--function .,-analysisfunctionallocationnanalysis --performancepredictionFigure 2.11:Stages of human engineering analysis24. Responses were obtained for a total of 33 acquisition or development projects in theRSG member nations in which at least one of the 24 human engineering analysis techniques hadbeen used. The projects included a wide variety of military systems: an infantry air defencesystem, tanks, aircraft, ships, submarines, and command and control systems. (No data wereincluded from projects which did not use any human engineering techniques, as adding such datawould reduce the sampled rate of application of each technique.) The rate and pattern of use ofthe human engineering techniques was found to differ widely between nations and betweenNATO UNCLASSIFIED- 15 -