A Novel Approach Combined with Therbligs and VACP Model to Evaluate the Workload During Simulated Maintenance Task

Abstract

Automobile maintenance is a primary necessary means to prolong the service life of the automobile, to improve the reliability of automobile use, and to reduce the operating costs. The cumbersome and bulky automobile equipment usually requires maintenance, which need multiple servicemen collaborate with each other. Workload is an important factor affecting maintenance efficiency, when the workload of servicemen is too high, it will affect the physical and mental health of servicemen, work efficiency, maintenance reliability. Therefore, through the study of multi-person maintenance workload, the performance of maintenance can be evaluated. We designed a comprehensive evaluation software for maintenance procedures based on C# programming and SQL server database, combined with objective and subjective metrics. Based on the VACP theory, this software is suitable for serial parallel multiplayer task analysis, that really combines analysis of therbligs with workload analysis, and displays the results dynamically. The software has passed usability test that is established through focus group discussion and heuristic evaluation. At present, the proposed software package has a friendly interface design, strong guidance, and good usability of data analysis. It’s anticipated to expand this convenient workload evaluation package combined with therbligs and VACP model to evaluate the maintenance work in automobile maintenance in future.