Sofema Aviation Services considers the level of engagement for the delivery of an effective organisation system.
Introduction
The Organisations Safety System has to be managed “Top Down” to ensure the strongest and most effective approach.
To support the safety reporting system, a competent person should be appointed to perform the activities of collecting, assessing, analysing and monitoring of safety reports and trends, and circulating safety information in the organisation.
It is incumbent on the organisation to both enable an active reporting system and facilitate its delivery with motivation encouragement & feedback.
Allocating Responsibility
While acknowledging that maintenance personnel are off course responsible for their own actions, it must also be recognized that, in many cases, the errors of maintenance technicians are the visible manifestation of problems with roots deep in the organisation, essentially recognizing that for every physical lapse there are often a number of pre-cursors which can act as enablers or contributing factors related to the specific issue in question.
Root Cause & Contributing Cause Analysis
A careful examination of each error, combined with a preparedness to inquire into why the error occurred, can help to identify underlying organisational problems.
Effective countermeasures to maintenance error require a systemic approach, not only towards issues at the level of the technician and their work environment, but also to organisational factors such as procedures, task scheduling and training.
Some countermeasures to the threat of maintenance error are directed at reducing the probability of error through improvements to training, equipment, the work environment and other conditions.
A second, complementary, approach is to acknowledge that despite the best efforts, it is not possible to eliminate all maintenance errors, and countermeasures must be put in place to make systems more resilient to those residual maintenance errors that are not prevented.
Final Considerations
Consider the benefit of a Safety Management Systems (SMS) that go beyond legal compliance with rules and regulations, and instead emphasise continual improvement through the identification of hazards and the management of risk.
The activities involved in managing the risk of maintenance error can be appropriately included within the SMS approach. Key activities include internal incident reporting and investigation systems, human factors awareness for maintenance personnel, and the continual identification and treatment of uncontrolled risks.
Next Steps
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For further details please email office@sassofia.com and online@sassofia.com
Tags:
aviation safety, EASA, Human Factors and Safety Management Systems, Aviation Safety Management System, aviation human factors, EASA Part – CAMO
