Paper Number 2005-02-005 1 USE OF PRODUCT DESIGN METHODOLOGY TO DEVELOP THE TECHNICAL AUDIT PROTOTYPE FOR WEBSAT Pallavi Dharwada, Nikhil Iyengar, Kunal Kapoor, Joel S. Greenstein & Anand K. Gramopadhye Department of Industrial Engineering Clemson University Clemson, South Carolina Data analysis tools are effective in evaluating various processes and identifying problematic areas. Safety being the primary concern of the aviation industry, it is imperative that effective data analysis be conducted on data obtained from various aviation processes. WebSAT is a web-based surveillance and auditing tool which is intended to capture errors from aviation maintenance processes and analyze the data to further evaluate on the effectiveness of each of the maintenance processes. WebSAT will collect data for the quality assurance work functions of aircraft maintenance, which are surveillance, internal audits, technical audits, and airworthiness directives. This paper presents the product design methodology used to prototype the technical audit module for WebSAT. As a part of the design methodology, customer statements were analyzed and corresponding need statements were generated. These were then used to generate metrics in terms of which product specifications will be established. Concepts were generated for the design of the module and were tested with potential users to identify the most promising one. Later, the selected concept was refined by incorporating features of other concepts that were preferred by the user. Introduction The Federal Aviation Administration has continually supported human factors research to explore various strategies that improve aviation safety. Aviation maintenance is identified as a crucial factor that contributes to accidents (Boeing and US ATA, 1995) and hence considerable amount of research in past has focused on identifying intervention strategies that enhance the functioning of the aviation maintenance system. Previous research on aviation maintenance investigated issues pertaining to the performance of the inspector or the aviation maintenance technician (AMT). These studies have devised several training strategies, such as on-the-job training (OJT), computer-based training (CBT) and training in a virtual reality environment to improve the efficiency and the effectiveness of the AMT (Nickles et al, 2001). There have also been studies which looked at the psychophysical aspects of the inspector, such as age, fatigue, and cognitive abilities to assess the performance of an inspector on the highly demanding inspection task, where errors have a severe impact on aircraft safety (FAA, 1991). Various methodologies have been adopted to analyze errors so as to recommend human factors interventions that enhance the safety of an aircraft. Error classification schemes (Patankar, 2002) are very useful for identifying weak points in a system, provided they are backed by comprehensive investigation procedures. In addition to these schemes, empirical models are needed to determine how the parts of the system interact to influence outcomes. A recent example is the Maintenance Error Decision Aid (MEDA) (Rankin et al., 2000). MEDA helps analysts identify the contributing factors that lead to an aviation accident. However, the MEDA process is dependent on the erring technician's willingness to be interviewed about an error. Anything that would decrease this willingness, such as a fear of being punished for the error, would have a detrimental effect on MEDA implementation. Taylor and Thomas (2003) used a self-report questionnaire called the Maintenance Resource Management/Technical Operations Questionnaire (MRM/TOQ) to measure what they regarded as two fundamental parameters in aviation maintenance: 1) professionalism, which is defined in terms of reactions to work stressors and personal assertiveness and 2) trust, defined in terms of relations with co- workers and supervisors. All these efforts tend to be reactive in nature, analyzing accidents subsequent to their occurrence. Hence, there is a need for empirically validated models/tools that capture data on maintenance work and provide a means of assessing this data prior to dispatch of the aircraft. The inspection carried out on an airplane by the AMTs is often overseen and audited by the airlines which own the airplane. The data that comes out of these surveillance and auditing processes is an indicator of the efficiency and effectiveness of the maintenance and inspection tasks that are being carried out by the AMT. An appropriate data collection strategy could identify the significant sources of improper maintenance, which would in turn reflect on the efficacy of the aviation maintenance process. Furthermore, the data thus