Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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The Step Complexity Measure - Its Meaning and Applications

  • Published : 2003.02.01
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Abstract

According to related studies, it was revealed that the procedural deviation plays a significant role in initiating accidents or incidents. This means that, to maximize safety, it is indispensable to be able to answer the question of “why the operators deviate from procedures\ulcorner” In this study, the SC (step complexity) measure is introduced to investigate its applicability for studying the procedural deviation, since it was shown that the change of the operators' performance is strongly correlated with the change of SC scores. This means that the SC measure could play an important role for researches related to the procedural deviation, since it is strongly believed that complicated procedures would affect both the operator' performance and the possibility of the procedural deviation. Thus, to ensure this expectation, the meaning of the SC measure is investigated through brief explanations including the necessity, theoretical basis and verification activities of the SC measure. As a result, it is confirmed that the SC measure can be used to explain the change of the operators' performance due to the task complexity implied by procedures. In addition, it seems that the SC measure nay be useful for various purposes, particularly for scrutinizing the relationship between the procedural deviation and complicated procedures.

Keywords

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