Utility owners and operators of commercial nuclear power plants in the United States (U.S.) are and will be modernizing their nuclear power plants by performing a digital transformation involving design of an integrated set of systems that together enable a technology centric operating plant. The Plant Modernization Pathway of the U.S. Department of Energy Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program has a strategic action plan that lays the groundwork for a digital transformation of the nuclear industry. The model for this transformation is an advanced concept of operations, with an end point vision, "To achieve the maximum aggregate benefit enabled by this digital transformation." To achieve this, the digital infrastructure for a nuclear plant must be designed as an integrated set of systems that together enable a technology centric operating model.The digital transformation process obviously needs to involve technology considerations and systems engineering, but it also needs to include human and organizational expertise. Thus, human and organizational factors, including sociotechnical systems methods and techniques (e.g., Cognitive Systems Engineering, Systems Theoretic Accident Modeling and Processes, human systems integration, and Macroergonomics) need to be considered for digital transformation projects in order to effectively integrate human and organizational expertise efforts into the new work system that results from nuclear power plant digital modernization. That is, the work system is the basic unit of sociotechnical systems analysis and contains three components: personnel, technical, and organization and management. These components should be jointly optimized with respect to the interdependence of systems performance criteria of effectiveness, efficiency and safety. Joint optimization can be achieved through the application of three human and organization functions: knowledge representation, knowledge elicitation, and cross-functional integration. This report provides a strategic framework for effective integration of human and organizational expertise within nuclear power plant digital modernization efforts.
This paper describes an approach for integrating cognitive analysis in the early stages of design of a new, large scale system --a next generation US Navy Surface combatant. Influencing complex system designs in ways cognizant of human-system integration principles requires work products that are timely and tightly coupled to other elements of the system design process. Analyses were conducted, and recommendations made in parallel with, and as inputs to design decisions regarding system purposes, functionality, automation capabilities and staffing levels. We could not wait for design decisions to be made before proceeding or require other design groups to wait for our outputs. Thus, it was necessary to select and adapt cognitive work analysis methods to fit the demands of a time pressured design situation. A functional abstraction hierarchy model, and a series of cross-linked matrices were developed to provide a principled mapping between system function decompositions produced by system engineering teams, cognitive tasks, information needs, automation requirements, and concepts for displays. Cross-referencing the matrices supported design traceability standpoint and the integration of cognitive analyses with functional analyses being performed by other design teams. Results fed into design decisions with respect to level of automation, manning requirements and initial display prototypes. Providing an illustration of the processes and methods we applied is valuable because it describes and formalizes the relationship between concepts used in cognitive analyses and those used in systems engineering; it demonstrates the generalizability of cognitive engineering methods in a set of circumstances where few well documented examples exist; and it provides guidance for other human factors practitioners who may find themselves in similar circumstances.
The US Navy is currently implementing "optimal manning" approaches to the design of future warships. Simply put, this emphasis takes the form of designing and deploying ships whose blend of human and mechanical/computer-based systems reduces the need for traditionally large crews while improving overall system performance and safety. Reflecting this emphasis, a Future Surface Combatant program currently in the design stage is the first Navy procurement in which the principles of user-centered design (UCD) and human-systems integration (HSI) are key design drivers. The integration of UCD and HSI methods has never been attempted in a design effort of this magnitude, and has inevitably led to illuminating insights on the part of human factors, system engineering, and other disciplines engaged in the effort. This paper provides an overview of "lessons learned," and is intended to assist the future integration of UCD and HSI principles into the design of similarly complex systems.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.