Block off: an examination of new control room configurations and reduced crew sizes examining engineered production blocking

AbstractPrevious research has shown a potential bottleneck of communication of information between the sonar controller (SOC) and operations officer (OPSO) in submarine sound and control rooms. This research aimed to see if this bottleneck could be removed by co-locating the sound and control room teams. Further, it also looked at the effects of reducing the crew numbers. Ten teams preformed the return to periscope depth tasks during high and low demand in a simulated submarine control room. Activities and communications of the teams were recorded and compared with data from a baseline condition of contemporary operations. The findings show that the co-location of the sound room and control room teams relieved the bottleneck of communications between the SOC and OPSO. Although communications increased, this was more balanced across team members and more relative to operational demand. This was coupled with more efficient task completion, resulting in greater number of tasks being completed by the command teams. Reduced crewing led to greater communications between the remaining members of the team together with task shedding in the higher demand condition. Future research should contrast these findings with objective measures of task performance to better understand potential performance benefits.
Source: Cognition, Technology and Work - Category: Information Technology Source Type: research