Maintenance Workplace Questionnaire

Human factors, as perceived by the maintenance workforce, were used as the measure for comparing work areas within a petroleum company. These factors were then compared to an objective measure of reliability (Mean Time Between Failures) in order to determine which factors would be most predictive of plant reliability and process safety. Maintenance personnel were surveyed using scales based on Problem-solving, Vigilance, Design and maintenance, Job-related feedback and Information about change. Analysis of Variance was used to assess the strength of these variables in relation to Reliability Level. Significant differences were observed between different reliability levels based on workforce perceptions of problem-solving requirements and the design and maintainability of plant. Conclusions were that perceptions of human factors in the workplace can be predictive of group-level performance, and that if issues relating to design and maintainability are not addressed at the design stage, greater problem-solving abilities will be required from maintenance personnel.

The results of three studies support past research demonstrating that problem-solving skills and the design of socio-technical facilities have an important influence on organisational performance. The findings further extend research in the field of human factors by demonstrating a significant relationship between these two factors and group-level performance. The findings also demonstrated the importance of organisational communication, but as an organisational-level dimension that might not influence group-level measures. This research has implications for organisations that operate complex, hazardous technologies and that are attempting to improve organisational processes by utilising a human factors approach.