Revealing misleading schemes through operator activity analysis: A factory case study

Abstract

This article presents an activity analysis carried out in an aeronautical factory. The representation of the real process and the operators' representations were identified. The representation of the real process was elaborated using an abstraction hierarchy, as described by the ecological interface design framework. The operators' representations were extracted through interviews and observations and described in terms of schemes. The analysis revealed that operators in the studied factory used misleading schemes (i.e., false representations) to organize their activities, resulting in poor performance. We conclude by offering possible remedies, including training aimed at inhibiting the misleading scheme and a simulation tool to convey a more accurate representation. K E Y W O R D Sactivity analysis, aeronautical factory, misleading scheme

Systematic literature review on work domains represented by the abstraction hierarchy

“…La catégorie de l'industrie couvre des domaines de travail qui portent sur les centrales nucléaires [9,10,12,15,16,22], les procédés chimiques [24], une centrale électrique au charbon [7], les procédés d'une usine en aéronautique [17], les procédés de pasteurisation [36] et un procédé thermohydraulique [4]. La catégorie du transport couvre des domaines de travail qui portent sur le transport aérien [1,6,31,44] et ferroviaire [19,32,37].…”

“…Le domaine de travail de la catégorie d'automatisation est un appareil photo [25], le domaine de travail de la catégorie des désastres naturels est une ville en cas d'inondation [2], le domaine de travail de la catégorie du jeu est le football européen [18], le domaine de travail de la catégorie du militaire est un navire de guerre [3] et le domaine de travail de la catégorie des ressources humaines est la supervision d'équipes [29]. Functional purpose [1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 10, 12, 15, 16, 18-20, 22, 23, 25, 29, 31, 36, 37, 43-45] Functional goals [17] General purposes [28] Highest level goals [3] Overall purpose [21] Purposes [14] Abstract function [4, 6, 7, 10, 12, 15-17, 22, 25, 28, 29, 43-45] Abstract function and priority measures [1] Abstract purpose [19] Balances [14] Generic control functions [21] Priorities and constraints [3] Values & priority measures; Priorities/values [2,18,20,23,36,37] Priority measures [31] Generalized functions [3,4,6,7,10,12,15,16,22,25,29,[43][44][45] General functions [17,31] General function and work activities [1] Generalised purpose…”