A Study on Visualized Procedure Manuals Based on Questionnaire Surveys of Maintenance Workers

Abstract

In our previous studies on visualized procedure manuals, qualitative evaluations were made by four participants. The visualized procedure manuals, we tried to make and evaluate, were not only composed of descriptive texts but also of many photos and diagrams. Although the evaluation was based on the participants’ subjective answers, the evaluation results suggested that the visualized procedure manuals were easier to understand than the conventional procedure manuals. For making the effectiveness of visualized procedure manuals clear, we proposed six types of visualized procedure manuals and quantitatively-evaluated those effectiveness in this study. The respective visualized procedure manuals instructed the procedure of maintenance work on a small horizontal pump and a vacuum circuit breaker in a power plant. The quantitative evaluation was based on a questionnaire survey of 40 maintenance workers. The result of the questionnaire survey indicated that the visualized procedure manuals were preferred in terms of usefulness by the participants. Therefore, our knowledge on the visualized procedure manual could be valid. Further, we obtained the knowledge about the effective formats, photographs and diagrams, and the notation methods for making visualized procedure manuals as related to field works or training novice workers.