ABSTRACT
The chapter presents modern manufacturing industry is meeting the challenges using an integration of automation and organizational techniques, in a way that could well prove more profitable for aircraft maintenance and inspection systems. Industry is changing rapidly, and with it the functions of quality control and maintenance. The most obvious interaction of human factors and automation occurs at the lower level, although there are considerable sociotechnical systems concerns throughout the organizations. As in most industrial activities, automation has proceeded in a piecemeal manner in aircraft maintenance and inspection. Many of the issues in maintenance are taken care of in the planning and organization process. At the initiate function, automation is possible using computer-based work cards. The initiate functions of repair use the same automation technology as the equivalent function in inspection. Compared with the best manufacturing applications of automation, the examples in the aircraft hangar appear to be both piecemeal and technology driven.
