Risk Analysis and Prevention in Procedures: Extraction and Preliminary Results

1. PROBLEMATICS Maintenance operations as well as production launches are essentially based on procedures which describe how to install and use a product and how to maintain it. Due to the complexity of to-day’s equipements, and to the complexity of their interactions it is difficult to maintain up-to-date documentations. These procedural documents become more and more complex, even if simplified language constraints and revision scenarios are imposed. According to several analysis, out of 377 technicians working in different domains, 45% of them indicate that they have identified major errors in maintenance documents. About 75% indicate that there are major gaps (missing instructions) or obscure or imcomplete instructions, and 78% admit that often need help because they feel they are not operating the right way. We are all confronted to situations where we wish to follow instructions (DIY, software installation, etc.) with pictures, diagrams, etc. and that these are not understandable, have obvious gaps or do not correspond to the situation at stake. In some industrial areas, such difficulties are common and lead to accidents (aeronautics, nuclear energy, health, etc.). Risk analysis and prevention are therefore a major concern.