Monday, March 18, 2019

Break The Norm! Why Accepting New Employees Helps Aviation Maintenance/Servicing

        Many aviation employers fear the new employee for aviation maintenance/servicing.  Which is quite understandable due to the aspect that they lack experience.  So why is it good to have fresh blood?  I will go over reasons why and how it reduces human factors associated with aircraft accidents, but first lets define what a human factor is.  A human factor is "a term that covers the science of understanding the properties of human capability" ( AMT Handbook Addendum Chapter 14. Pg. 14-3)   So what factors effect the human capability negatively, and how can employers effect those factors for the better.  I will not discuss all of the factors, rather how hiring new employees can reduce some of the negative factors.
       "Transport Canada identified twelve human factors that degrade people's ability to perform effectively and safely, could lead to maintenance errors." ( AMT Handbook Addendum Chapter 14. Pg. 14-11) One of those factors is known as Norms.  Every company may run things a little bit different, but if they are not following the proper procedures developed from maintenance manuals for proper maintenance, this can cause severe hazards.  Newcomers only know what they learned from school and will often times be very strict in following the proper procedures, or wanting to essentially do what the rules say to do.  If an older employee starts to establish a new norm for a particular procedure, even though that is not what is outlined in the proper maintenance manual, this could cause a problem down the road.  When a new employee brings up that the other employee is not following the correct procedures, the older employee should not claim seniority and bypass what the new employee says; he should consider what was said and reexamine the manual according to the correct procedure.  Being an overseer of maintenance programs we should incorporate the human factor of environment and ensure that everyone is heard, no matter their position or experience.


References:

AMT Handbook Addendum Human Factors 2017

https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/maintenance_hf/library/
      

No comments:

Post a Comment