Human factors integration
2.7 The future
2.7.1 Assessment of progress within the MoD on new projects
This final section describes recent work within the MoD to examine the implemen- tation of HFI procedures and methodologies. It is included in this chapter as a means of providing a form of case study for readers.
The introduction of HFI within the MoD started in 1989 and it has now influenced a substantial number of major projects that are coming to fruition with the possibility of establishing the consequences and way ahead. A recent project funded under the MoD’s Corporate Research Programme set out to investigate how work to support
the implementation of HFI principles had influenced acquisition programmes within the 170 Integrated Project Teams (IPTs) of the Defence Procurement Agency (DPA) and the Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO) [16].
A substantial number of representatives from IPTs were visited. Projects were selected by (financial) size (using the four categories taken from the Acquisition Management System (AMS)): above £400 million, between £100 and £400 million, between £20 and £100 million, and under £20 million, and across the four defence operational capability areas (manoeuvre, strategic deployment, strike and information superiority). This selection was made to ensure a true representation of projects in initial phases within the DPA and DLO. Those IPTs which could not be visited were sent a questionnaire by post addressed to the leader. This helped to ensure that the results were truly representative. All projects were guaranteed anonymity to avoid disclosure of sensitive issues. All approached were most willing to help. Some of the most important general results are presented here.
Figure 2.2 shows the amount of funds that projects declared they were willing to allocate to HFI work in their stage of the project. There were four categories 0–5 per cent, 5–10 per cent, 10–20 per cent and ‘do not know’. It is clear from the figure that many projects were preparing to allocate substantial proportions of their resources to HFI. Furthermore they believed that they had a sound understanding of the potential benefits.
Figure 2.3 shows part of the technical basis for the work. The projects declared their understanding of ‘lessons learned’ that guided their work. Not surprisingly their main guidance was taken from human engineering considerations. However, HFI and Project Management and Systems Engineering (PM/SE) issues were clearly important. These are closely followed by manpower, safety and Integrated Logistics Support (ILS).
Number of projects
0–5% 5–10% 10–20% Do not know
Percentage of project funds allocated 0
5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Figure 2.2 Funds allocated to HFI in the current planning stages
HFI 12%
ILS 8%
PM/SE 10%
HFE 38%
System safety 8%
Health hazards 4%
Manpower 8%
Personnel 6%
Training 6%
Figure 2.3 The ‘lessons learned’ that influence current HFI planning
Number of projects reporting barrier or weakness HFI specification and training Process application Internal management Procurement Cost of HFI work
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Figure 2.4 Summary of barriers and weaknesses influencing current planning Figure 2.4 gives an indication of the problems that IPTs are encountering when developing HFI programmes within their projects. They include:
• HFI specification and training;
• process application;
• internal management;
• procurement constraints;
• cost of HFI work.
The first three of these barriers address issues that are internal to the MoD and are being addressed. The procurement constraints are more difficult. These refer to issues arising from acquisitions such as Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) products where items come directly from a supplier. Perhaps the most difficult to understand is the perceived cost of HFI. There is little doubt that the discipline is seen as expensive even though it is a fraction of the cost of many other such specialisms and the allocation of funds seems to be well underway.
Perhaps more than anything else Figure 2.4 reminds the HFI community that HFI methods and techniques, costs and benefits need to be made more comprehensible to customers and stakeholders within a project. However, a number of major projects were prepared to claim that they had already experienced benefits.
2.7.2 Projects in ‘utilisation’
The survey also asked those IPTs that were responsible for equipment currently in service about their HFI work and the issues they were addressing.
Table 2.6 provides a summary of the most important issues under each TA that was reported as being addressed. It also identifies the percentage of the issues that it is believed are being addressed.
There are a number of ways of interpreting Table 2.6. The first might be to say
‘well done, past errors are already being corrected’. Another might be to say ‘why did these failures that require fixing arise in the first place?’ A third might be to ask
‘what is the cost of these fixes and what is the price of getting it right in the first place?’ It is clear from a number of the confidential reports that some issues being
Table 2.6 Topics and issues being addressed with DLO
Technical area Most important % of technical issues
technical issue addressed so far
Operational scenario Role change 62
Team organisation and manpower Communications capability 68
User characteristics Personnel availability 66
Equipment operability Operation of controls 58
Equipment layout Workspace 22
Maintenance Maintenance access 27
Training Trainer representation/fidelity 25
Environmental conditions Temperature 28
System safety Unsafe loads 86
Health hazard High risk conditions 68
Additional topics Survivability 40
Additional issues Operational effectiveness 38
addressed were both expensive and preventable. Once again, projects declared that they believed that the HFI approach was delivering benefits.
The report on the work on the DPA and DLO has been widely accepted and it is generally believed that the results obtained are comparable to those that would have been obtained in similar industries elsewhere.
It would therefore appear that much HFI-related work is taking place, and in particular taking place early in the cycle and during in-service activities. However, it would appear that there are plenty of items to address on current equipments so the early work should be in great demand to enable the application of lessons learned.