AN ANALYSIS OF STRUCTURE AND ERRORS IN CORRECTIVE MAINTENANCE WORK.

The report describes the work structure within which the technician operates when he performs corrective electronics maintenance. The structure is characterized as a hierarchy of goals, each necessarily achieved prior to achieving the general original goal of restoring a malfunctioning equipment to a normal state. Within this goal hierarchy is a structure of serial activities whose performance is required in the achievement of each goal. General methods of altering goal sets are described by which the technician may work toward satisfying activity goals and generating appropriate sub-goals. Using the work structure as a foundation, an analysis of errors is developed. Errors at the maintenance interface are precisely defined, and several concepts are introduced related to the generation, detection, and correction of errors. In addition, the concept of technician and equipment error states is introduced. In order to gain further insight into error processes, and to gather empirical data in support of the concepts presented in the theoretical development, an empirical study was performed. Conclusions are drawn and implications for future research are discussed. Author