The System Perspective on Human Factors in Aviation

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the system perspective in terms of its origins and fundamental quantitative ideas. An appreciation of these basic concepts adds rigor to analysis and synthesis of human-machine systems, and in particular to such systems in aviation. The chapter represents an effort to remind the reader of the meaning of “system,” where it comes from, and what it implies for research, design, construction, operation, and evaluation in aviation, especially with regard to the human role in aviation. Human factors professionals, pilots, and operational personnel in air traffic management and related practitioners who know about “systems” only as a general and often vague term for something complex can benefit from knowing a bit of the history, the people, and the quantitative substance that underlies the terminology. The chapter begins by defining what is meant by a system, then discusses the history of the idea, the major contributors and what they contributed, and what made the systems idea different from previous ideas in technology. It goes on to give examples of systems thinking applied to design, development, and manufacturing of aviation systems in consideration of the people involved. Salient system models such as control, decision, information, and reliability are then explicated.