Physical and cognitive dimensions: Towards a necessary consideration in aviation maintainability

Aims. Maintenance is a complex, multi -faceted and difficult activity that deviates from the requirements of many occupational safety standards or legislation. In many industrial sectors, the variability of the tasks performed by maintenance operators involves a number of ergonomic problems that are still poorly understood and little studied. This article aims to illustrate the necessity to better consider physical and cognitive aspects of maintenance. We will particularly focus on the physical efforts that can permanently impact the operators' activity. Method. We observed the physical activity (heart rate) and the cognitive dimension of maintenance operators performing four maintenance tasks representative of those regularly performed on helicopters. Seven operators were selected based on their experience. Also, to be able to interpret our heart rate results, we selected a homogeneous population in terms of sports practice. Results. The measurement of the heart rate highlighted very high Relative Cardiac Costs on three out of the four tasks initially defined as without physical effort. In addition, the mental workload seems to be impacted by the physical load on all four tasks studied while these same tasks are all considered to be simple, short, requesting a basic knowledge and know-how, without the use of specific tools, without memorizing long and complex sequences. Conclusion. Analysis of the physical and cognitive dimensions of four recurring maintenance tasks on helicopters has shown that taking these two occupational health risk indicators into account is necessary to improve organization in the workshop. In addition, in order to anticipate the activity of operators and their constraints during the design phases, it seems essential that this type of analysis be known by designers.