United We Stand: Using Multiple Tools to Solve a Multi-dimensional Problem

Abstract

Researchers at the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) investigated the impacts of reducing the number and location of personnel assigned to a Combined Arms Battalion Headquarters on Soldier workload, fatigue, and performance. Initial requirements were for 24 personnel to be located within four armored vehicles. Due to design constraints, however, the number of personnel needed to be reduced or some personnel moved to other vehicles. To recommend a solution to this problem, the researchers had to consider multiple human factors issues such as function allocation, mental workload, work space, and fatigue. Therefore, they used multiple human performance modeling tools including JACK, IMPRINT, C3TRACE and FAST to evaluate the problem. Each of these tools provided the analysts with analytical results on a unique aspect of the problem. By integrating these results, the researchers demonstrated the impacts of multiple aspects of this problem. Their recommended solution was closer to optimal because it incorporated many aspects of the problem than are considered typically.