A Framework for Optimizing Total Training Systems: Application to Maintenance Training and Team Training Systems

The concept of team or crew training has for some time been acknowledged as extremely important to the accomplishment of any complex task requiring the joint, integrated skills of more than one human. Effective implementation of such a training program becomes a challenge when numerous complex tasks, affecting the actions of several teams or crews, interact with each other in accomplishing higher order tasks or missions. A total system framework is needed in order to account for and plan for these interactions, many of which could be critical in terms of safe mission accomplishment. In this paper, we introduce such a framework which has enjoyed great success in the analysis and planning of other man-machine systems. We then extend the concepts to include maintenance training and aircrew training, and the training function in general within the Enterprise, giving examples that relate to current training challenges.