A method of evaluating inspector's performance differences and job requirements.

Large individual differences are among the most consistent findings in the study of industrial inspection. From a statistical point of view, a large proportion of the variation in inspection performance is attributed to this individual factor. Based on the conclusions obtained from the review of previous papers, the relations between subjects' cognitive factors and inspection performance were shown to be in need of further exploration. The objective of this paper is to introduce a method that can explore this large proportion of variation by concentrating on individuals' cognitive attributes and how each contributes to the efficiency and effectiveness of inspection performance. In an experiment, three inspection tasks and 11 cognitive pretests were included. Through factor analysis and Pearson correlations, some significant predictive relationships were found. The findings can be applied to set up selection criteria as well as training schemes for industrial inspectors.