The Aircraft Maintenance Intuitive Troubleshooting (AMIT) project is a three-year Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) effort headed by the Logistics Readiness Branch, Warfighter Readiness Research Division, Human Effectiveness Directorate (HEAL) through NCI Information Systems, Inc, with the support of the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI). AMIT's goal is to support aircraft maintenance technicians by providing the right information, appropriate to their experience level, so they will more efficiently and effectively complete their task. Multiple data collection strategies were adopted, including an extensive literature review, a series of process interviews, and a progression of CTA interviews. The CTA effort was designed to capture where the process is inadequate or breaks down. Areas of the maintenance process identified as most challenging includes debrief, problem duplication, and troubleshooting. Resulting design recommendations include Graphical System Representations, electronic technical orders, electronic wiring diagrams, access to other information sources, and application of case based reasoning.
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REPORT DATE (DD-MM-YYYY)2. REPORT The AMIT program is an advanced research (6.3) program developed as a human performance enhancement for flightline maintenance technicians in the operational and warfighting environment.The need for AMIT was identified as critical to reducing persistent "Cannot Duplicate", "Re-test OK" and false removal patterns that have hampered maintenance performance and readiness and have increased operating costs.The significance of AMIT will be in researching the troubleshooting process and cognitive demands and decision points in order to identify the gaps where emerging science and technology could be applied to improve performance.
The Aircraft Maintenance Intuitive Troubleshooting (AMIT) project was a 3 year endeavor sponsored by the Air Force Research Laboratory's Logistics Readiness Branch. The project's goal was to develop a Job Performance Aid (JPA) that Air Force maintenance technicians could use at the aircraft, regardless of experience level, and realize improved technician performance. This paper describes the AMIT Field Demonstration Test (FDT) and subsequent Cost Analysis (CA). The FDT demonstrated that using the AMIT JPA could reduce repair times by 41 to 50 minutes. Also, performance of novice specialists using AMIT approached or exceeded that of expert specialists using current methods. The CA, applying the FDT results to fleet-wide F-16 Block 40/42 maintenance data, revealed a potential savings of over 47,000 labor hours annually in repair time, translating roughly into $3,000,000 in labor costs. Similar savings are likely across additional airframes pending development and implementation of the AMIT solution.
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