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WASHINGTON, July 31, 1998 – The Army Manpower and Personnel Integration program, MANPRINT for short, considers the human-machine interface in seven areas during the creation of a new weapon system.
The areas, called domains, are related, and all must be considered. The first six come from the first days of the program in the mid-1980s. - Personnel Capabilities. This deals with the knowledge and physical abilities soldiers need to train on a weapon system and to operate, maintain and sustain it.
- Manpower. This involves the number of persons required or potentially available to operate, maintain and sustain, and to provide training for, the system.
- Training. This deals with formal and on-the-job instruction required so users have the essential job skills, knowledge, values and attitudes.
- Human Factors Engineering. This integrates people into system definition, design, development and evaluation.
- System Safety. This considers design features and operating characteristics to reduce potential injuries caused by human or machine errors and failures.
- Health Hazards. This takes into account characteristics such as loud noise, chemical and biological substances, extreme temperatures and radiation that pose risks of injury or death.
- Soldier Survivability. Added in 1994, this stems from Desert Storm, where U.S. forces experienced many friendly- fire casualties. Designers now, for instance, contend with weapon ranges that exceed soldiers' ability to discern friend from foe. Every decision in this domain involves technical aspects that affect the ultimate human decision to fire.
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