Human Factors Team Research Articles

The Human Factors Team and Accumulative Impact of “Microtrauma” of Daily Practice in Emergency Personnel

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Development of Job Performance Aids to Increase Human Performance Reliability: A Case Study in the Evaluation of Human Factors Principles

A study of criticality safety, commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy, was conducted by Scientech Inc. at the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons facility. The study concluded that human performance is the driving factor in the risk of an inadvertent criticality incident at the Rocky Flats Plant (RFP). A study of the infractions which have occurred at this facility bears this point out. A human factors team was established to identify a means of reducing human error in every day operations. The team determined that the posted instructions near each work area are key to operators having a clear understanding of operating requirements. An evaluation of the posted instructions revealed that they were very complex, required operators to monitor multiple parameters, and resulted in the operators” attention being divided between operational tasks and the task of monitoring nuclear safety parameters. Alternative graphics, textual, and graphics and textual formats combined with color coding were developed to improve comprehensibility, understandability, controllability, and usability in the Job Performance Aids (JPAs). Results of field tests of the different formats provide clear indication that operators prefer short, concise textual statements summarizing important information over both other formats. Although operators indicated interest in the graphics formats, the magnitude of change in presentation techniques and the generalizability of the icons argued against their immediate use. Issues in the development of candidate JPAs and other usability requirements are discussed.

A Prototype Modular Base System for Military Applications

Modularity is a concept that the military has been advocating for the design of ground station shelters for the past several years. To this end the military has created a program known as the Standard Mobile Segment (SMS). This program is intended to create standards for military shelters and the modular equipment housed within. Standard shelter sizes were determined to be 8 foot high by 8 foot wide in overall lengths of 10, 20, 30, or 40 feet. These dimensions were selected to allow transport by truck in any state of the union. Wall thickness was set at 3″ leaving inside dimensions of 90″ high by 90″ wide. Shelter components such as workstations, racks, equipment, and storage areas would be designed to be “plugged in” or “unplugged” as the need arose. All manufacturers would provide components with uniform interfaces in standard dimensions to be interchangeable with components of other manufacturers. As an example, one 48″ workstation could be removed and replaced with two 24″ electronic racks. Using a standard sized shelter and the concept of modularity, the IBM Human Factors team in the Federal Sector Division in Boulder, Colorado began by creating a modular 48″ workstation that conformed with the SMS standard. The modular workstation was then expanded into a complete 20 foot transportable operations shelter. The prototype of this shelter in now complete and the modular concept has been expanded to include a modular base system.

Effective Mockup Utilization by the Industrial Design—Human Factors Team

Mockup technology, the transformation of two-dimensional design drawings into three-dimensional representations of hardware concepts, is a well established design tool within the engineering community. When employed or controlled by the industrial design-human factors support team, mockup development is an extremely effective means for influencing equipment design so that the needs of the eventual user are served. A number of difficulties that confront the industrial designer within the aerospace industry setting are discussed. One method of entering into the advanced system development process is through the assumption of responsibility for mockup design, development, construction and evaluation. In the course of mockup development, excellent opportunities are available for introducing human factors and industrial design principles into preliminary and detailed design of advanced manned systems. The diverse purposes served by mockups are discussed, and representative case histories illustrating the application of various mockup techniques in aerospace systems are presented.