Troubleshooting Performance Using Paper and Electronic Documentation

Abstract

Four troubleshooting tasks were administered to 36 technicians, 12 each from the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps. The tasks consisted of identifying a fault introduced into a circuit relay or discrete component on a printed circuit card used in the RT-728A/APX-64(V) radio receiver transmitter. Two tasks were performed using conventional manuals and two using information presented on a GRID Compass II computer. Significant differences were found with regard to time to identify faulted card, total problem solution time, and number of false item replacements, all of which were less for electronic than for conventional information delivery. Significant differences were also found with regard to number of test points checked, total number of tests performed, and number of problems solved, all of which were greater for electronic than for conventional information delivery. Thus, with electronic information delivery, technicians performed electronic information delivery were also consistently favorable. The only major criticism of the computer concerned the inadequacy of screen size for displaying schematics.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 14, 1987
Accession Number
ADA185256

Entities

People

  • Duane M. Johnson
  • Robert J. Smillie
  • Stephen I. Sander
  • William A. Nugent

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Force Facilities
  • Aircrafts
  • Computers
  • Control Systems
  • Databases
  • Diagrams
  • Electronics
  • Human Resources
  • Instructions
  • Maintenance
  • Marine Corps
  • Military Personnel
  • Personnel Management
  • Printed Circuits
  • Social Sciences
  • Training

Readers

  • Applied Combinatorial Optimization and Logic Circuit Design.
  • Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).
  • Instructional Design and Training Evaluation.

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics