Factors affecting outage construction efficiency

The effects of outage work upon the efficiency of nonmanual personnel are examined in a case study at one nuclear power plant. Problem areas included orientation and training, paperwork, work schedule, containment work, and shift turnovers. The impact of these problems upon the individual was examined in such areas as job satisfaction, working relationships, stress, money, and personnel turnover. Specific departments' problems were also pinpointed. An overview of the client's perspective and general lessons learned are given. The paper concludes with problems that are generic to all outage work: recognizing the differences between new construction and outage projects, boosting morale, the need for detailed preplanning and centralized control, and improving working conditions in the containment area.