Riktlinjer för studier av icke-existerande komplexa sociotekniska system : Erfarenheter från en studie av införandet av ombordbaserad helikopter på korvett av Visbyklass

Sammanfattning: This report consists of a discussion about suitable methods for studying complex sociotechnical systems that are still being developed. There are large economical advantages with studying new systems before they are completely developed since problems can be discovered early and thereby avoided. It is, however, difficult to study developing systems, there are methodological limitations. These limitations are discussed and recommendations for studying non-existing complex sociotechnical systems are presented. The report is based on experiences from a study of the introduction of a shipboard helicopter on the corvettes that the Swedish Armed Forces are developing. A shipboard helicopter implies high requirements on the hosting ship. Three different types of requirements were studied: technical, educational and crew requirements. Focus was on the crew requirements, especially on the demands for the operators in the command and control centre onboard the ship. Their workload was studied to decide whether or not they can handle new tasks and assignments. The planned interaction with the helicopter was studied in order to estimate the operators’ workload during helicopter activity. The results are presented in Hansson (2005). This report also presents a discussion about the need for system support for the operators interacting with the helicopter. The command and control system of the ship has most of the required functionality. A system support for helicopter start and landing does not exist even though such a support could increase the safety of these activities and reduce the operator workload.