Faults Analysis

Faults analysis is the process of analysing the typical faults that occur when performing a task, especially the more costly faults. It is carried out when the incidence of faults is high. A study is made of the job and, by questioning workers and team leaders, the most commonly occurring faults are identified. A faults specification is then produced, which provides trainees with information on what faults can be made, how they can be recognized, what causes them, what effect they have, who is responsible for them, what action the trainees should take when a particular fault occurs, and how a fault can be prevented from recurring.

Job learning analysis 

Job learning analysis, as described by Pearn and Kandola (1993), concentrates on the inputs and process rather than the content of the job. It analyses nine learning skills that contribute to satisfactory performance. A learning skill is one used to increase other skills or knowledge and represents broad categories of job behaviour that need to be learnt. The learning skills are the following:

1. physical skills requiring practice and repetition to get right; 

2. complex procedures or sequences of activity that are memorized or followed with the aid of written material such as manuals; 

3. non-verbal information such as sight, sound, smell, taste and touch, which is used to check, assess or discriminate, and which usually takes practice to get right; 

4. memorizing facts or information; 

5. ordering, prioritizing and planning, which refer to the degree to which a role holder has any responsibility for and flexibility in determining the way a particular activity is performed; 

6. looking ahead and anticipating; 

7. diagnosing, analysing and problem-solving, with or without help; 

8. interpreting or using written manuals and other sources of information such as diagrams or charts;

 

9. adapting to new ideas and systems.

In conducting a job learning analysis interview, the interviewer obtains information on the main aims and principal activities of the job and then, using question cards for each of the nine learning skills, analyses each activity in more depth, recording responses and obtaining as many examples as possible under each heading.