Economics of Human Systems Integration : The Pratt & Whitney F 119 Engine

Human Systems Integration is a comprehensive management and technical approach for addressing the human element in weapon system development and acquisition. The primary objective of human systems integration is to integrate the human as a critical system element, regardless of whether humans in the system function as individuals, teams, or organizations. This discipline seeks to treat humans as equally important to system design as are other system elements, such as hardware and software. HSI has been defined by many stakeholders, particularly government agencies that advocate the “total system” approach, which incorporates humans, technology, the operational context, and the necessary interfaces between. The human considerations include the following nine domains: manpower, personnel, training, human factors engineering, environment, safety, occupational health, habitability, and survivability. This paper introduces one area of a larger research project, sponsored by the U.S Air Force, which seeks to develop an approach for determining what percentage of the overall systems engineering activity should be allocated to HSI in order to effectively consider these nine domains as part of the overall systems engineering effort. To determine the appropriate systems engineering effort needed for a program, we examine a case study that represents an exemplar outcome. The Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 engine is an example of a US Air Force project that successfully employed HSI principles, even though it was not called HSI at the time, throughout its development in the 1980s. The engine powers the F-22 Raptor air superiority fighter aircraft and has been praised both for its performance and supportability. Although the successes of the F119 project are apparent, the effort spent specifically on HSI was not well documented, and this will be examined during the study. This paper first provides a brief background of HSI and relevant research in the field. We use previous work on HSI best practices to focus our case study on the activities most important to HSI success. Our case study shows that Pratt & Whitney adopted HSI principles and methods early in the development process in response to continued Air Force emphasis on Reliability, Maintainability & Supportability (RM&S). We also document the effort and resources Pratt & Whitney voluntarily put into HSI activities and explain how that effort led to reduced life cycle cost for the Air Force.