Learning to Benefit from LOSA Programs

Congratulations! You’ve completed your Line Operations Safety Audit (LOSA). You are ready to strategize and reap the benefits of your proactive LOSA strategy.

Now, one of the final steps in the LOSA process is setting up targets for enhancement based on the rich data you’ve collected. Within the LOSA data, you will undoubtedly uncover trends and issues that you were blinded to (which is one of the primary benefits of LOSA). With these identified trends and issues, you will be able to set your safety targets (i.e., targets for improvement).

Related Aviation LOSA Articles

• LOSA Observer Calibration: Why It’s Important
• Benefits of LOSA Management Solution
• Learn How New Cabin LOSA Works for Airlines

New Safety Targets – Benefits from LOSA Data

Some examples of safety targets include:

• Develop a module on CFIT awareness
• Standardize takeoff briefings
• Improve management of adverse weather threats
• Reduce the number of unstabilized approaches
• Reduce SOP cross-verification errors
• Reduce sterile cockpit violations

How to Set Targets from LOSA Data

All of the above items are actual targets that have been used by various airlines as a result of their LOSA findings. Targets use action verbs such as “Develop,” “Reduce,” or “Improve.”

From these general action verbs, you will need to get more specific by developing safety performance indicators (SPIs). SPIs allow you to quantify changes over time.

But be careful with unrealistic SPI targets. You may not be able to reduce SOP cross-verification errors by 80% by your next LOSA!

It’s better to be conservative and incrementally meet your targets than to make unrealistic targets and get extremely frustrated when the next LOSA is conducted. Thus, instead of stating that you will reduce SOP cross-verification errors by 80% by the next LOSA—and be terribly disappointed—try picking a more conservative target such as 30%, and see what happens.

If you meet or exceed the 30% target, great! Try reducing another 30% for the next LOSA (but keep in mind that improvements over time may become more gradual—be sure to keep your targets realistic).

On the other hand, if you completely miss your target (i.e., a reduction of 3% instead of 30%), something isn’t working. This would require a deeper investigation into the corrective and preventive actions that have been employed as a result of the last LOSA.

Once the issue is addressed, and revised in the system, hopefully at the next LOSA you will meet or exceed your target. And just like anything else in your aviation SMS, SPI measurement and monitoring is an ongoing process to reduce your safety risks to “as low as reasonably practicable!”

Related Aviation Key Performance Indicators (KPIs, SPIs) Articles

• What Is a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) in Aviation SMS? - With Free KPI Resources
• Choosing Key Performance Indicators in Aviation SMS
• How to Automate Key Performance Indicator KPI Monitoring in Aviation SMS

LOSA training and LOSA software can help your organization manage a LOSA initiative to save money and reduce risk.

Last updated September 2023.