IT Support for Flight Technicians: An Exploratory Study

This paper reports an interpretive case study conducted at three different airports in Sweden and Norway during 1999. The focus of the study has been to establish an understanding of the work practice of flight technicians and the use of IT support tools for aircraft maintenance. By use of observations, interviews and document reviews, we found three main issues. First, there is a gap between the education of flight technicians and their production work. Second, flight maintenance is time critical, which makes on-site educational efforts difficult. Third, the diversity of computer systems used by flight technicians hinder efficient and productive maintenance, as well as restrain a recent trend towards mobility of IT support tools.