Effect of equipment complexity on inspection performance

Abstract

62 experienced inspectors inspected 10 different items of electronic equipment covering a wide range of complexity, 8 or more inspectors inspected each item. Inspection performance was found to have an almost perfect inverse relationship with equipment complexity. The rank-order correlation between percentage of defects detected and pair comparison ratings of complexity was -.92; between percentage of defects detected and number of parts it was -.91. The results indicated that equipment complexity has a significant detrimental effect on inspection performance and that this effect cannot be overcome by extending the amount of inspection time allotted. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)