Why is HSI Important?
HSI is one of the vital links that optimizes the design of systems to
achieve total system performance, maximizing human capabilities and
accounting for human limitations. HSI provides an integrated approach to
considering the human on a par with the hardware and software he/she is
expected to operate, maintain, and support. It applies common sense to the
acquisitions process with three distinct results:
- Minimize total ownership costs (TOC)
Depending on the HSI-related
decisions that are made during the acquisition process, total ownership costs could either be a
financial success or a costly burden. DoD cost studies show the areas where potential savings and
benefits can be achieved with good HSI:
- After a system achieves initial
operational capability, 80% of its Life
Cycle Costs (LCC) are HSI-related.
- Forty to sixty percent of a system's LCC relate to manpower, personnel, and training.
-
Eighty percent of environmental problems
result from decisions made during
acquisition.
- Data on the effectiveness of
HSI application report a 25% reduction in
the incidence of human error.
Design changes made early in materiel
solution analysis, technology development, and early product development are far less
expensive compared to later stages of system development
where the same changes are more
difficult and costly because they involve changes to actual hardware and software.
- Optimizes total system performance
The total system includes not only
the prime mission equipment and software, but also the people who operate, maintain, and
support the system; the training and training devices; and the operational and support
infrastructure. Human Systems Integration (HSI) practitioners assist program managers by focusing
attention on the human part of the system and by integrating and inserting manpower, personnel,
training, human factors engineering, environment, safety, occupational health hazards, and
personnel survivability considerations into the Defense acquisition process.
- Advocates for the end user
The human is recognized as an
essential component of the system and it’s our responsibility to ensure the system is built to
accommodate the characteristics of the user population that will operate, maintain, and support the
system. Through effective and efficient HSI, the Coast Guard can ensure systems are built around
the people who will operate them, rather than the people having to adapt in order to make the
equipment work.
