View non-flash version
April 2012www.sname.org/sname/mt (historical note )HFE in Design More than six decades of slow and uneven adoption BY GERRY E. MILLER The application of human factors engineering (HFE) to the maritime industry in the United States began in the early 1940s when the U.S. navy established research laboratories involved in identifying and measuring human performance at sea. ese early applications were associated with spe- cic types of military equipment (such as early sonar and radar systems). e early, highly specic, HFE e orts evolved into broader applications of HFE in the design of naval vessels, essentially beginning in 1951 with the pub- lication of the Handbook of Human Engineering Data for Design Engineers . is was followed in 1954 by the Human Engineering Guide for Equipment Designers. Despite the guidance provided by these documents, incorporating HFE into the total design of any navy surface ship or sub- marine was not a major consideration at that time. e lack of use of HFE knowledge in the design of naval ships began to change, however, with several sig- nicant events: r the creation in 1971 of a new HFE-based ship habitability design standard r the decision to allow women to serve onboard ships in 1978 r the inclusion in 1980 of HFE in the detail design and construction contract for the navys newest landing ship dock r the creation of a commercial HFE design stan- dard (ASTM F1166) in 1988 that could be applied to the design and construction of navy vessels, as well as to the design of commercial ships and o - shore structures r the introduction of the human system integration program in the 1990s, which is now a fundamen- tal part of every navy ship acquisition program. Oshore oil and gas industry HFE was rst programmatically introduced to the U.S. o - shore oil and gas industry in 1990 when it was included in the overall design of a tension leg platform deepwater drill- ing and production rig for use in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). Since then, HFE has been included in the design of at least two dozen other o shore structures operating in the GOM. In addition to the GOM, it is estimated that there are now more than 30 o shore structures around the world that have used HFE in all, or large portions of, the facil- ity design. ese structures cover the range of o shore drilling, production, storage, and supply vessels includ- ing tension leg platforms, mobile drilling units, jack-up drilling rigs, o shore supply vessels, spar platforms, and oating production storage and ooading units. Within the last 20 years, numerous HFE-based design standards have been created by classifica- tion societies, technical organizations (for example, the American Society of Testing and Materials), and standards organizations. Standards also have been cre- ated by international regulatory agencies (such as the International Maritime Organization) and country reg- ulatory agencies (such as the United States Coast Guard). However, although it is true that there has been an increase in interest and use of HFE in the U.S. navy and in the commercial shipping and o shore eets over the past four decades, that interest in, and use of, HFE has been slow and uneven. And since the Deepwater Horizon event, interest in including HFE as a part of the design e ort for o shore structures has increased by regulatory agencies, classication societies, and com- panies working in the maritime industry. MTGerry E. Miller is with Tucson-based GEM and Associates. Whidbey Island (LSD-41) was an early navy ship with HFE included in its total design.