A descriptive study of an electronic performance support tool for airline maintenance

This research attempted to determine the desired characteristics of an electronic performance support tool for airplane maintenance technicians in commercial aviation. To identify those characteristics, three questions were posed: (Q1) What airplane systems are most in need of electronic performance support tools? (Q2) What kind of maintenance activities should electronic performance support tools support? (Q3) How would electronic performance support tools be most effectively delivered to the airplane maintenance technician? This was a three-phase descriptive study. The first two phases were data collection activities. The first phase was an e-mail survey, and the second phase was a guided discussion during a face-to-face meeting. The third phase was a verification process to aid in establishing the study's reliability. Those participating as data providers were maintenance training managers and training specialists with airlines from North America and Europe.; The research resulted in 71 characteristics. Of those, 15 are related to research question one, 21 to research question two, 21 to research question three, and 14 not related to a research question. The 14 not related are, however, relevant to a description of an electronic performance support tool.; The aircraft systems needing support (research question one) are those that are difficult to troubleshoot, those that experience frequent erroneous parts replacements, and those that directly affect the passenger's flight experience. Maintenance activities most in need of support (research question two) are preparing the airplane for departure at the airport passenger gate, overnight maintenance, and hangar maintenance. The strongest emphasis was on gate actions because of the short time constraints. The delivery of an electronic performance support tool (research question three) would be most effective if the hardware was able to withstand the hostile environment of heat, cold, and chemicals found on the typical airport ramp, and if the software was simple to navigate, linked to maintenance information, and allowed the user to select access.; According to the data, two different support tools could be developed. One would meet the most pressing needs and be limited in scope to essential tasks and systems. A second might add more systems and features such as data collection.