University of Southampton, Boldrewood Innovation Campus, Burgess Road, Southampton, UK.
University of Southampton, Boldrewood Innovation Campus, Burgess Road, Southampton, UK.
Appl Ergon. 2019 Nov;81:102875. doi: 10.1016/j.apergo.2019.102875. Epub 2019 Jul 3.
The manner in which control rooms are configured can impact the flow of information between command teams. Previous research revealed bottlenecks of communications between the Sonar Controller (SOC) and the Operations Officer (OPSO) in submarine control rooms. One way to relieve such bottlenecks is to co-locate operators reliant on one another for task relevant information. The aim of the current studies was to use multiple command teams to empirically examine a novel submarine control room configuration and a reduced crew size in comparison to a baseline of contemporary operations to see if such bottlenecks could be removed. Ten teams performed high and low demand Dived Tracking (DT) scenarios in a simulated submarine control room. Activities and communications of the teams were recorded and quantified using the Event Analysis of Systemic Teamwork (EAST) method affording statistical comparisons with a baseline condition of contemporary operations. The findings showed that the co-location of operators relieved the bottleneck of communications between the SOC and the OPSO. Although overall communications increased, this was more balanced across the team and was more adaptive to scenario demand. This was coupled with a significant increase in task completion, even with a reduced crew size, suggesting greater efficiency and productivity. Future research should seek to validate the changes observed with objective measures of task performance.
控制室的配置方式会影响指挥团队之间的信息流动。先前的研究揭示了潜艇控制室中声纳控制器（SOC）和作战官（OPSO）之间通信的瓶颈。缓解这些瓶颈的一种方法是将依赖彼此获取任务相关信息的操作人员集中在一起。当前研究的目的是使用多个指挥团队，通过与当代操作的基准相比，对一种新颖的潜艇控制室配置和减少的人员配备进行实证检验，以确定是否可以消除这些瓶颈。十个团队在模拟潜艇控制室中执行了高需求和低需求的潜水跟踪（DT）场景。使用系统团队工作的事件分析（EAST）方法记录和量化团队的活动和通信，从而可以与当代操作的基准条件进行统计比较。研究结果表明，操作人员的集中配置缓解了 SOC 和 OPSO 之间通信的瓶颈。尽管总体通信量增加，但团队之间的通信更加平衡，并且更能适应场景需求。这伴随着任务完成率的显著提高，即使人员配备减少，也表明效率和生产力更高。未来的研究应该寻求用任务绩效的客观衡量标准来验证所观察到的变化。
