User Perceptions of Aviation Maintenance Technical Manuals

Studies of aircraft maintenance safety have typically focused on the actions of maintenance technicians, job culture, and work procedures. More recent attempts to document the source of maintenance error and improve maintenance procedures have identified the documentation used to guide maintenance tasks as a significant cause of errors. This paper details the results of a written survey and on-site interviews used to solicit information about user perception of error in current manuals, manual usage rates, frequency of errors in text and figures, and general manual quality. Most participants reported rarely or never finding errors in manual text, illustrations and diagrams. Ratings of manual quality reveal that most users found the manuals useful with quality diagrams and text. However, users report that the written maintenance procedures are inefficient and fail to consider the demands of the work environment. The generally good user ratings of manual text, illustrations and diagrams indicate that the procedures employed by manufacturers to guide the manual development process are effective in minimizing the inclusion of incorrect technical information. Yet, low usability ratings clearly highlight the need for greater user involvement during the development of maintenance documentation.