Embedding Human Factors into Simulations of Operations - Discrete Event and Agent Based Modelling

工作场所的设计往往忽略了人的因素。这会导致错误、系统运行不佳，甚至导致员工健康状况不佳。这项研究建议开发模拟工具，使工程师和管理人员能够了解人为因素对他们设计的系统以及将运行该系统的一线员工的影响。通常，大多数模拟工具不会考虑人类，或者把他们当作机器对待。这项工作将利用现有的模拟工具，将最好的可用人类行为和风险模型嵌入到模拟中，以提高预测的准确性和能力。该计划将调整现有的关于人们疲劳和恢复反应、学习和遗忘模式以及出错行为的科学知识，以创建更强大的模拟模型。由于人类科学研究人员(开发了这些模型)和工程研究人员(主要关注技术)不经常相互交谈，这个项目提供了一个机会，通过在工程模型中很好地利用人类科学来探索协同效应。通过使用离散事件模拟和基于代理的模拟等“常用”模拟工具，我们可以创建易于与使用这些工具的社区共享的“插件”方法和途径。一旦为模拟软件开发了新的插件，它将与加拿大当地的行业合作伙伴合作进行测试，允许调整模型参数以获得尽可能高的准确性。这将帮助我们了解这些工具在实践中是如何工作的，以及如何改进它们以更好地适应实际用户。最终，这些建模方法可以用来帮助工程团队设计新的操作和测试创新想法--然后再投资于原型或将员工置于风险之中。通过开发“虚拟人的因素”工具，我们将为设计团队打开大门，让他们创建具有高度竞争力的运营，以最佳方式利用员工的技能和知识，同时将超负荷、缺勤和人员流失的风险降至最低，这些风险损害了当今许多工作场所的盈利能力。

Human considerations are frequently omitted from the design of work-places. This results in errors, under-performing systems, and even leads to poor employee health. This research proposes to develop simulation tools that allow engineers and managers to understand the impact of human factors on the systems they design, and on the front-line employees who will run the system. Typically, most simulation tools do not consider humans, or treat them just like machines. This work will take existing simulation tools and embed the best available human performance and risk models into the simulation to improve the accuracy and power of the predictions. The program will adapt existing scientific knowledge of people's fatigue and recovery responses, learning and forgetting patterns, and error making behaviours to create more robust simulation models. Since human science researchers (who have developed these models) and engineering researchers (who focus mostly on technology) don't often talk to each other, this project presents a chance to explore synergy effects by putting human science to good use in engineering models. Using "stock" simulation tools like discrete event simulation and agent based simulation allows us to create "plug in" methods and approaches that are easily shared with the communities using these tools. Once a new plug-in for the simulation software is developed, it will be tested in collaboration with a local Canadian industry partner allowing for the model parameters to be tuned to get the best accuracy possible. This will help us understand how these tools work in practice and how they might be improved to better suit real users. Ultimately, these modelling approaches can be used to help engineering teams design new operations and test innovative ideas virtually - before investing in prototypes or putting employees at risk. By developing 'virtual human factors' tools we will open the door for design teams to create highly competitive operations that use the skills and knowledge of employees optimally, while minimizing risks of overload, absenteeism, and turnover that compromise the profitability of many of today's workplaces.