Cost-Justifying Investments in Advanced Human-Machine Interface Technologies I: A Cost-Benefit Framework for the Process Industries

摘要

Advanced human-machine interfaces (HMIs), such as those developed under the ecological interface design framework, continue to show substantial advantages for supporting effective operator control (Vicente, 2002). However, prospective industry users of these technologies have expressed a need to make a quantitative economic case for designing and implementing advanced HMIs. To date, no comprehensive cost justification study has been published on advanced HMIs. The purpose of this paper is to report original work on a cost-benefit framework for advanced HMI's. We first present a brief summary of findings from a literature review of existing human factors cost justification studies and present a working list of metrics. We then describe a general cost-benefit framework derived from this list of metrics and discuss issues to be considered in applying this model in practice.