DATE: March 22, 2001

PLACE: Rideau Room, Sheraton Hotel, 150 Albert Street

SPEAKER: Mike Wellwood - President and CEO, The HFE Group

Human Factors Engineering is the application of knowledge of human characteristics, capabilities and limitations to the system design process.

Over the years, the inclusion of Human Factors Engineering (HFE) in all phases of systems development has migrated from "nice to have" through to a "mandated requirement". The reasons for the increased popularity of employing HFE principles and practices in the design of Operator-Machine Interface are better products and significant cost savings. It results in a product that meets the needs of the intended user group, costs less to develop, reduces downstream product deficiencies, increases productivity, and significantly reduces the costs associated with redesign.

Although the HFE process requires an investment of money and time, the eventual savings are substantial.

The HFE process developed to support system design is based on a military handbook, MIL-HDBK-46855, Human Engineering Guidelines for Military Systems, Equipment, and Facilities. MIL-HNBK-46855 provides a structured approach to Requirements Definition and the tracking of these requirements through the design evolution. This process has been successfully utilized in several major systems development exercises and is as applicable to the development of commercial systems as it is for military systems.

The process itself is exercised in a waterfall configuration; wherein the Integrated Project Team conducts one analysis to the satisfaction of the team and, more importantly, the target user community, before continuing to the next analysis phase. The primary elements in the process include: Development of a Statement of Requirements; Development of a Human Engineering Program Plan; Site Visits/Data Collection; Conducting an Analysis; Review and Documentation; System Prototypes; User Review and Evaluation; and Specification Development. This structure promotes trace ability of the requirements established in the early conceptual phases of a program and throughout the entire development activity.

This presentation will describe the HF process and its related benefits. It will highlight the evolution of the process and discuss the impact that technology has had on the process itself.

The scope of the material covered, and the parallels between HFE and related software development processes suggest that there are elements of interest to all levels of PI practitioners.

If it is your goal to reduce production time, increased total system performance, improve safety and user satisfaction, or simply get it right the first time, then this presentation will be of interest to you.