Human Factors Issues in the Application of a Novel Process Description Environment for Machine Design and Control Developed under the Foresight Vehicle Programme 2002-01-0466

In the globalization of the automotive businesses, manufacturing companies and their suppliers are forced to distribute the various lifecycle phases in different geographical locations. Misunderstandings arising from the variety of personnel involved, each with different requirements, backgrounds, roles, cultures and skills for example can result in increased cost and development time.

To enable collaborating companies to have a common platform for interaction, the COMPANION project at Loughborough University has been undertaken to develop a common model-based environment for manufacturing automotive engines. Through the use of this environment, the stakeholders will be able to “visualize” consistently the evolution of automated systems at every lifecycle stage i.e. requirements definition, specification, design, analysis, build, evaluation, maintenance, diagnostics and recycle. It is important that the new approach is evaluated with respect to the requirements of the stakeholders since cost and technical issues are unlikely be the only factors that could enable / inhibit the uptake of this new approach. Research has been carried out to study the implications of human factors issues on the application of the COMPANION toolset by the multi-skilled automotive engineering teams. The requirements of the new common-model based approach, the evaluation methodology, and the results of initial findings are detailed in this paper.