Life Cycle Cost Minimization & the Impact of Early Implementation of Human Systems - PowerPoint Presentation

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Life Cycle Cost Minimization & the Impact of Early Implementation of Human Systems Integration Requirements

Liana

Algarín, Ph.D. Candidate,

The George Washington University

Thomas A. Mazzuchi, D.Sc.,

The George Washington University

Shahram Sarkani, Ph.D., P.E.,

The George

Washington

University

Presented at Systems Engineering in DC

Chantilly,

VA

April

3-5,

2014Slide2

OverviewProblem Statement Motivation

Life Cycle of an Acquisition Program

Human Systems Integration Requirements

Case Study: WIN-T

T

raining Burden

Methodology

Pilot Study

Conclusion & Future ResearchSlide3

Problem StatementIncorporating Human Systems Integration (HSI) requirements earlier in the acquisition life cycle may minimize cost. One way to predict the effect that HSI requirements will have on life cycle cost would be to identify HSI language within acquisition documents. Regression analysis using specific variables identified from the text of HSI language is a potential method for making a prediction about life cycle cost. The predictor variables will be generally categorized

by time

(when HSI language appeared in documentation), training

recommendation and component,

and specific HSI issue.

HSI has nine domains:Human Factors Engineering, Environment, Safety, Occupational Health, Habitability, Survivability, Manpower, Personnel, & Training Project Manager (PM) Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) is a tactical communications network “WIN-T is like the ‘Verizon’ of the Army.” Dr. Bev Knapp, Army G-1, MANPRINTWIN-T is an ubiquitous tactical communications network that the Army will continue to implement and improve during the coming yearsThe Army is committed to making WIN-T work efficiently Slide4

4

Problem StatementSlide5

MotivationPrimary Stakeholders US Army’s Manpower Personnel Integration (MANPRINT)

program

Human

Research and Engineering Directorate (HRED

), which

is one of six directorates in the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL)MANPRINT program mission is to cut costs and prevent soldier loss during the system development life cycle MANPRINT’s goal is for Army’s Soldiers to experience less of a burden in both training and long-term Operations and Maintenance (O&M) My goal is to deliver new analytics that would assess the benefits (or costs) of implementing HSI early in the life cycleStakeholders have been wanting to examine this idea, and they would like to have insight on how WIN-T can/could have been improved Slide6

Acquisition Program Life Cycle

Major decision points occur during Milestones A, B, and C; some requirements are

not

included at Milestone A but are later introduced during Milestone C

Schedule slippage and cost overruns are affected by long-term manpower planning

In addition to poor planning, poor project management strategy can cause a program to fail to meet its objectivesWhen Systems Engineering is applied early in the life cycle, the Technology Development Phase and Knowledge Points are benefited Function allocation early in the life cycle helps a complex work system, such as WIN-T, to be more effective It is also beneficial to create a system value from stakeholders’ opinions and apply this system value to the life cycle Slide7

HSI RequirementsHuman Systems Integration (HSI) involves incorporating people with the systems that they use to complete various tasks When an acquisition program begins, there may not be a clear idea of what the end user will need in the long-term

However, this is not a justification for entirely leaving out HSI requirements at Milestone A

Usability defines how well a human can use a system; usability issues can be anticipated early in the life cycle

Including

HSI up-front at the life cycle planning stage helps to reduce long-term costs by means of reducing the burden of training the

workersEarly incorporation of HSI requirements and HSI methods can benefit a system or program later in its life cycle HSI requirements can be successfully incorporated when the stakeholders are open to including HSI requirements and following HSI methods and when HSI happens early in the life cycleSlide8

Case Study: WIN-TA case study with the Army’s tactical communications network, known as Warfighter

Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T

)

,

will illustrate how there have been cost overruns as a result of integrating

HSI requirements late in the life cycleWIN-T will be used at locations where Soldiers must communicate with other units There is no common interface across all of WIN-T’s componentsWIN-T combines user interfaces from several individual systemsCombining these interfaces has created some confusion for the Soldier end userConfusion has created a heavy training burden on SoldiersThere are 4 WIN-T increments being completed/scheduled since 2004 onwardEach increment of WIN-T is expected to show improvements for usability WIN-T Increment 2’s team is currently conducting usability analysis of WIN-T’s componentsSlide9

Training BurdenAs more time is spent training soldiers to interact with and use WIN-T, cost increases Some Military Occupational Specialties (MOS) have the appropriate experience for working with the types of interfaces that are incorporated with WIN-T

However, Soldiers with different MOS may sometimes use WIN-T and find it difficult to use, particularly due to the several user interfacesSlide10

MethodologyObjective is to create new analytics to measure the extent to which early implementation of HSI requirements will affect an acquisition programData collection will be taken from source documents provided by stakeholders at the MANPRINT and HRED offices

Potential WIN-T

Source Documents

Assessments (including MANPRINT Assessments)

Statements of Work

Analysis of Alternatives Engineering Change Proposals Emails Test Reports Meeting Minutes Initial Capability DocumentCapabilities Production DocumentCapability Development Document etc.Slide11

Pilot StudyUsing existing data from WIN-T Increments 1 & 2, we can make predictions for WIN-T Increments 3 & 4Regression analysis is a statistical method that can be used for making a general prediction based on previously made observations

The planned analysis will be a regression analysis with

one Dependent Variable

and

several Predictor

VariablesSlide12

Pilot StudyDependent Variable Will be defined using MANPRINT assessment scores

Predictor Variables

Time

: Date in month/year (number of months into WIN-T’s acquisition life cycle)

Time

: If a document is released sometime after the events to which the document refers, such as a report about a test from a few months ago, then the date in month/year will indicate closest approximation to the appropriate time in WIN-T’s life cycleTraining: Recommendations for training improvement (by each WIN-T component)HSI-Related Language: Previously selected HSI words/phrases Selected by Expert Elicitation – Asking stakeholders what words or phrases they think are relevant Selected by Cluster Analysis (CA) – Do CA on a primary word that is synonymous with HSI, such as a unique word related to any of the nine HSI domains Slide13

Conclusion & Future ResearchNew analytics will be created to demonstrate that applying HSI requirements earlier in the acquisition life cycle would be beneficial The method of looking for HSI language within documents and noting when certain language was used can be repeated with any

program

Milestones

and assessments are commonly used within systems acquisition programs, particularly for military and weapons systems

These new analytics could potentially be used to:

increase accuracy of schedule predictions, minimize Life Cycle Costs for hours spent on training, and minimize component usability issues related to HSI Slide14

Questions ???Slide15

ReferencesSlide16

ReferencesSlide17

BiographiesLiana Algarín is working toward a Ph.D. in Engineering Management and Systems Engineering at The George Washington University. She is also a Human Factors Engineer at Alion Science and Technology, where she has designed user interfaces, training manuals, and user guides to support the Army and NASA. She has also conducted a

critical

task and usability analyses of Coast Guard cutters.

Thomas A. Mazzuchi, D.Sc.,

is Professor of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering at The George Washington University. His research interests include reliability, life testing design and inference, maintenance inspection policy analysis, and expert judgment in risk analysis. He served as Research Mathematician at Royal Dutch Shell, and has conducted research for the U.S. Air Force, Army, and Postal Service; for NASA, and for the Port Authority of New Orleans, among others.

Shahram Sarkani, Ph.D., P.E., is Professor of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, and Director of EMSE Off-Campus Programs, at The George Washington University. He designs and administers graduate programs that enroll over 1,000 students across the U.S. and abroad. In over 150 technical publications and in sponsored research with NASA, NIST, NSF, AID, and Departments of Interior, Navy, and Transportation, his research has application to risk analysis, system safety, and reliability.