Human Factors Integration (HFI) is the process adopted by a number of key industries (notably defence and hazardous industries like oil & gas) in Europe to integrate

human factors and ergonomics Human factors and ergonomics (commonly referred to as human factors) is the application of psychological and physiological principles to the engineering and design of products, processes, and systems. Four primary goals of human factors learnin ...

into the

systems engineering Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering and engineering management that focuses on how to design, integrate, and manage complex systems over their life cycles. At its core, systems engineering utilizes systems thinking ...

process. Although each industry has a slightly different domain, the underlying approach is the same.

Overview

In essence HFI tries to reconcile the

top down "Top Down" is a song by American hip hop record producer and recording artist Swizz Beatz, included as the eighth track from his debut studio album ''One Man Band Man'' (2007). "Top Down" contains samples of swirls and riotous bursts of 1970s-s ...

nature of system engineering with the iterative nature of a

user centred design User-centered design (UCD) or user-driven development (UDD) is a framework of process (not restricted to interfaces or technologies) in which usability goals, user characteristics, environment, tasks and workflow of a product, service or proces ...

approach (e.g. ISO 6385 or ISO 9241-210ISO 9241-210:2010 (Ergonomics of human-system interaction -- Part 210: Human-centred design for interactive systems) superseded ISO 13407:1999 (Human-centred design processes for interactive systems), which has been withdrawn.). It often does this by creating a Human Factors Integration Plan (HFIP) that sits alongside the system

development plan A development plan sets out a local authority's policies and proposals for land use in their area. The term is usually used in the United Kingdom. A Local Plan is one type of development plan. The development plan guides and shapes day-to-day de ...

. The purpose of the HFIP is to define how the Human Factors Engineering activities necessary for the successful delivery of a particular system will be conducted. It establishes the guiding principles to be followed by the project to implement the best-practice Human Factors methods. As well as the principles involved, the Plan normally describes the organisation, processes and controls necessary over the entire

life cycle Life cycle, life-cycle, or lifecycle may refer to: Science and academia * Biological life cycle, the sequence of life stages that an organism undergoes from birth to reproduction ending with the production of the offspring * Life-cycle hypothesi ...

of the system from the concept phase through to decommissioning.

Domains

HFI undertakes this by conducting a formal process that identifies and reconciles human related issues. These issues are split for convenience into domains. The seven domains defined by the US Army under its MANPRINT programme are:

Manpower Human resources (HR) is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms include m ...

- The number of military and civilian personnel required and potentially available to operate, maintain, sustain and provide training for systems Personnel - The cognitive and physical capabilities required to be able to train for, operate, maintain and sustain systems. Training - The instruction or education, and on-the-job or unit training required to provide personnel their essential job skills, knowledge, values and attributes. Human Factors Engineering - The integration of human characteristics into system definition, design, development, and evaluation to optimise human-machine performance under operational conditions. Health Hazard Assessment - Short or long term hazards to health occurring as a result of normal operation of the system.

System safety The system safety concept calls for a risk management strategy based on identification, analysis of hazards and application of remedial controls using a systems-based approach. This is different from traditional safety strategies which rely on c ...

- Safety risks occurring when the system is functioning in an abnormal manner. Soldier Survivability - The characteristics of a system that can reduce fratricide, detectability and probability of being attacked and minimize system damage, soldier injury and cognitive and physical fatigue. The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) adopted a similar HFI approach to MANPRINT in the early 1990s, but excluded Soldier Survivability. Subsequently the MoD added a seventh 'Social & Organisational' domain. Some industries also include habitability as a separate domain.

HFI Plan

The HFI plan scope defines the relationship between all the activities and the Human Factors domains and provides a systematic approach to ensure that: * The human role in the system is defined to optimise human performance in relation to the core system architecture and ancillary equipment. * Adequate human-equipment analyses and

trade-off A trade-off (or tradeoff) is a situational decision that involves diminishing or losing one quality, quantity, or property of a set or design in return for gains in other aspects. In simple terms, a tradeoff is where one thing increases, and anot ...

studies are performed, revisiting the assumptions throughout the system life cycle. The process is iterative. As the programme progresses, the HF activities involve greater depth of analysis. * Biomedical analysis and design support includes the

environmental protection Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment by individuals, organizations and governments. Its objectives are to conserve natural resources and the existing natural environment and, where possible, to repair da ...

necessary to promote health and safety, and the capability for safe operation and maintenance of the core architecture and ancillary equipment.Ancillary Equipment Modern Architecture Pedestrian
Albert J. Nemeth. * Training characteristics (materials, environment, evaluation criteria, etc.) for system personnel are identified. *

System testing System testing is testing conducted on a complete integrated system to evaluate the system's compliance with its specified requirements. System testing takes, as its input, all of the integrated components that have passed integration testing. ...

and evaluation is conducted to verify that users can safely and effectively operate, maintain and support equipment in its intended environment. * The design meets agreed operational performance standards and where this is not the case, to modify the design or associated training in such a way that the resultant manned system meets the required standards.

References

Notes

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External links