The Dirty Dozen Human Factors in aviation safety management systems (SMS) are not isolated factors.
They are an interwoven set of human actions that influence each other. And they are not all created equal.
Some Human Factors can pose significant risks but generally appear as symptoms of Human Factors that are more fundamental to human action. In this sense, Human Factors are layered.
Topics: 3-Safety Assurance
How did it all begin? Today, I want to discuss with you just how Human Factors training and the Dirty Dozen posters came to be.
My father, Gordon Dupont, is known as the founder of the Dirty Dozen and the following is how it all began.
Topics: 3-Safety Assurance
What is complacency? - It’s the self-satisfaction accompanied by a loss of awareness of the dangers.
Two very experienced AMTs (one with 22 years and the other with 33 years of experience) missed 140 cracks during a 100-hourly inspection. This resulted in one fatality and 95 people experiencing a very close call when 18 ft of fuselage went missing during a flight.
The whole world screamed, how could this possibly happen? How could these 2 men miss that many cracks?
Topics: 3-Safety Assurance
Transparency boils down to a very simple issue: information.
Specifically, control over and access to information. As I have said before, it’s a hot topic these days.
WikiLeaks, Bradley Manning, Sony, the food industry – all are examples of major front-page scandals about access to information.
That aside, I think transparency in aviation safety management systems (SMS) needs to be looked at not as the "end all be all" pinnacle of an aviation SMS,
Topics: 3-Safety Assurance
80% of aviation service providers have trouble getting employees to participate in aviation safety management systems (SMS).
Most safety managers accept this challenge and strive to implement consistent safety promotion activities, such as
Topics: 3-Safety Assurance
Most safety professionals have a common-sense perception about how to monitor the safety performance of their aviation safety management system (SMS). After all, isn't safety performance monitoring just a fancy phrase for setting goals and tracking them?
Too often, aviation safety professionals are expected to perform "miracles" with their aviation SMS, but they are not provided realistic tools or training on how to achieve proper safety performance objectives.
Topics: 3-Safety Assurance
Auditing is a management practice that is very common in most industrial domains and for a variety of different purposes.
Administrative personnel, for example, are very familiar with financial auditing.
Professionals working under a quality management system certification are familiar with quality auditing.
Lawyers and other professionals dealing with regulatory compliance undergo audits focusing on compliance.
Topics: 3-Safety Assurance
Aviation safety managers usually have different opinions about exactly what root cause analysis is.
Root cause analysis activities for one safety manager may not align with the risk management processes practiced by another. This is because, in aviation safety management systems (SMS), there is no standard definition for what root cause analysis is.
Even oversight agencies like the FAA or ICAO shy away from providing much guidance on what root cause analysis is or how to conduct it.
Topics: 3-Safety Assurance
Historically, quality management systems and traditional safety programs have been managed separately. With the advent of modern safety management systems (SMS), there is an opportunity to develop synergies between the two systems. However, the majority of safety professionals at smaller companies remain focused on simple SMS compliance and may miss out on this unexpected boon, which has been disguised as a regulatory mandate.
Indeed, many organizations still manage their organizations' safety and quality initiatives with separate systems for quality operations and safety operations.
Topics: 3-Safety Assurance
Aviation leading indicators are aviation safety data put to best use. They are designed to identify precursors to good/bad safety performance and uncover what goes into the program that dictates success or failure.
Successful aviation safety management systems (SMS) are primarily concerned with stopping the manifestation of hazards before they happen, which is why they depend so much on leading indicators.
Leading indicators in aviation become useful to safety programs when:
Topics: 3-Safety Assurance
These two on-demand videos offer:
