Research Summaries

Back Maximizing Warfighting Performance Effectiveness (Requirements Creep)

Fiscal Year 2017
Division Research & Sponsored Programs
Department Naval Research Program
Investigator(s) Shattuck, Nita L.
Sponsor NPS Naval Research Program (Navy)
Summary US Navy shipboard workload requirements have continued to grow without the addition of more crewmembers to address the additional workload imposed by the requirements. In studies during underway deployments on multiple USN surface combatants, we have observed that the majority of Sailors work far longer than specified in the Navy Availability Factor (NAF) model. However, much of their time may be spent outside "productive work" time. For instance, we have observed that the category of Service Diversion (consisting of meetings, sick call, quarters, inspections, and miscellaneous categories of non-productive time) can account for much of the time a crewmember is off-watch. Training requirements have also burgeoned with compressed timelines for qualifications. Each additional shipboard requirement may, in itself, be small, but when they are all added together, the overall workload of the ship becomes unreasonable. This "requirements creep" results in reduced operational effectiveness, higher levels of occupational stress, with fewer and shorter opportunities for rest and recuperation for Sailors. This project will document the requirements placed on USN ships and Sailors. It will assess the man-hours needed to fulfill these requirements and determine whether resource-requirement mismatches exist and if so, where they are most pronounced and/or where corrective action may be warranted and most helpful in mitigating them.
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