Human factors considerations for critical maintenance tasks and their effect on the transition to digital documentation: an exploratory expert survey
Digitised maintenance documentation will soon be the norm in aviation. Failure to correctly perform maintenance tasks may lead to aviation safety hazardous events. This article explores the views of aviation maintenance subject matter experts on errors affecting critical maintenance tasks and how v...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Vilnius Gediminas Technical University
2025-03-01
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| Series: | Aviation |
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| Online Access: | https://jest.vgtu.lt/index.php/Aviation/article/view/23131 |
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| _version_ | 1850056950172090368 |
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| author | David P. Aherne Ingrid Hunt Kyriakos I. Kourousis Anna V. Chatzi |
| author_facet | David P. Aherne Ingrid Hunt Kyriakos I. Kourousis Anna V. Chatzi |
| author_sort | David P. Aherne |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
Digitised maintenance documentation will soon be the norm in aviation. Failure to correctly perform maintenance tasks may lead to aviation safety hazardous events. This article explores the views of aviation maintenance subject matter experts on errors affecting critical maintenance tasks and how views can inform transition to digitised documentation. This exploratory study offers a fresh view on human factors’ implications around critical maintenance tasks and their relation to digital documentation. A cross-sectional design method was utilised. Anonymous responses were collected with a mixed-methods questionnaire from convenience sample of participants from different aircraft maintenance and continuing airworthiness management organisations. Expert opinions of 25 aircraft maintenance and technical services engineers were recorded. All participants had personal experience with maintenance errors, where human factors attributed to these errors. They highlighted the lack of human factors’ awareness and the need to strengthen their contributory role in critical maintenance tasks. Participants’ views appeared divided in terms of challenges associated with digital documentation utilisation. Positive features emerged, such as critical maintenance tasks or duplicate/independent inspections’ highlighting, notes and warnings’ higher visibility, up-to-date documentation availability and better connectivity among activities. Negative themes concentrated on the tactile nature of paper and on the additional technology knowledge requirements.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c0d3863b26b34f2995fa85a307cdac49 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1648-7788 1822-4180 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-03-01 |
| publisher | Vilnius Gediminas Technical University |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Aviation |
| spelling | doaj-art-c0d3863b26b34f2995fa85a307cdac492025-08-20T02:51:34ZengVilnius Gediminas Technical UniversityAviation1648-77881822-41802025-03-0129110.3846/aviation.2025.23131Human factors considerations for critical maintenance tasks and their effect on the transition to digital documentation: an exploratory expert surveyDavid P. Aherne0Ingrid Hunt1Kyriakos I. Kourousis2Anna V. Chatzi3School of Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland School of Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Limerick, Limerick, IrelandSchool of Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Limerick, Limerick, IrelandDepartment of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Educational and Health Sciences, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland Digitised maintenance documentation will soon be the norm in aviation. Failure to correctly perform maintenance tasks may lead to aviation safety hazardous events. This article explores the views of aviation maintenance subject matter experts on errors affecting critical maintenance tasks and how views can inform transition to digitised documentation. This exploratory study offers a fresh view on human factors’ implications around critical maintenance tasks and their relation to digital documentation. A cross-sectional design method was utilised. Anonymous responses were collected with a mixed-methods questionnaire from convenience sample of participants from different aircraft maintenance and continuing airworthiness management organisations. Expert opinions of 25 aircraft maintenance and technical services engineers were recorded. All participants had personal experience with maintenance errors, where human factors attributed to these errors. They highlighted the lack of human factors’ awareness and the need to strengthen their contributory role in critical maintenance tasks. Participants’ views appeared divided in terms of challenges associated with digital documentation utilisation. Positive features emerged, such as critical maintenance tasks or duplicate/independent inspections’ highlighting, notes and warnings’ higher visibility, up-to-date documentation availability and better connectivity among activities. Negative themes concentrated on the tactile nature of paper and on the additional technology knowledge requirements. https://jest.vgtu.lt/index.php/Aviation/article/view/23131aircraft maintenancehuman errorhuman factorscritical maintenance tasksdigitisationaviation maintenance documentation |
| spellingShingle | David P. Aherne Ingrid Hunt Kyriakos I. Kourousis Anna V. Chatzi Human factors considerations for critical maintenance tasks and their effect on the transition to digital documentation: an exploratory expert survey Aviation aircraft maintenance human error human factors critical maintenance tasks digitisation aviation maintenance documentation |
| title | Human factors considerations for critical maintenance tasks and their effect on the transition to digital documentation: an exploratory expert survey |
| title_full | Human factors considerations for critical maintenance tasks and their effect on the transition to digital documentation: an exploratory expert survey |
| title_fullStr | Human factors considerations for critical maintenance tasks and their effect on the transition to digital documentation: an exploratory expert survey |
| title_full_unstemmed | Human factors considerations for critical maintenance tasks and their effect on the transition to digital documentation: an exploratory expert survey |
| title_short | Human factors considerations for critical maintenance tasks and their effect on the transition to digital documentation: an exploratory expert survey |
| title_sort | human factors considerations for critical maintenance tasks and their effect on the transition to digital documentation an exploratory expert survey |
| topic | aircraft maintenance human error human factors critical maintenance tasks digitisation aviation maintenance documentation |
| url | https://jest.vgtu.lt/index.php/Aviation/article/view/23131 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT davidpaherne humanfactorsconsiderationsforcriticalmaintenancetasksandtheireffectonthetransitiontodigitaldocumentationanexploratoryexpertsurvey AT ingridhunt humanfactorsconsiderationsforcriticalmaintenancetasksandtheireffectonthetransitiontodigitaldocumentationanexploratoryexpertsurvey AT kyriakosikourousis humanfactorsconsiderationsforcriticalmaintenancetasksandtheireffectonthetransitiontodigitaldocumentationanexploratoryexpertsurvey AT annavchatzi humanfactorsconsiderationsforcriticalmaintenancetasksandtheireffectonthetransitiontodigitaldocumentationanexploratoryexpertsurvey |