Aircraft Maintenance Technology

APR 2014

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2 5 Y E A R S : T H E N A N D N O W / H U M A N F A C T O R S DR. BILL JOHNSON is the FAA Chief Scientific and Technical Advisor for Human Factors in Aircraft Maintenance Systems. Johnson is a member of the Human Factors Advisory Group to the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). 10 April 2014 AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE TECHNOLOGY t ions of t he f l ight c r e w t r a i n i n g m a t e r i a l s t h a t focused on valu- able topics like communication and teamwork . About the same t i me US A i r (now A ir ways) also initiated a class. Within a short time K LM, Br itish A ir ways, Lufthansa, and oth- ers initiated selected human factors train- ing in engineering. By the mid-'90s topics like Swiss Cheese (Reason), Dirty Dozen (Dupont), and PEA R ( Johnson and Maddox) became standard fare for engineering HF courses. By that time ICAO and the Joint Aviation Authorities (now EASA) had formal guidance and recommenda- tions for the content of such training. By 2000, various regulations emerged and were especially significant when the EASA regulations were issued in 2002. The FA A, in lieu of regulations, relied on the guidance from a very robust HF research program starting in 1988. There are at least four phases that rep- resent the 25-year existence of mainte- nance human factors training. The phas- es are based on who/what is the primary focus. That focus includes the following: 1. Individual worker understanding of human factors challenges; 2. Individual manager understanding of human factors challenges; 3. Senior management and organiza- tional commitment to addressing human factors challenges; and 4. Organizational integration of human factors with safety man- agement and safety culture. Traditional curricula and focus Initial human factors courses focused on the knowledge of human factors. Such k nowledge cou ld usua l ly be assessed w ith a written exam based on the EASA Module 9 (see Table 1), affecting EASA Parts 66, 145, 147, and others. These are important topics because engineering personnel must understand and appreciate their own human strengths and weak nesses in order to apply human factors principles to the work environment. Some have compared these to the basics funda- ments of f light including lift, drag , weight and balance, etc. You must know the f undamentals in order to apply them at work. Maintenance Human Factors Training Initial courses focused on the knowledge of human factors, and now that human factors is a household word training is on the workplace applications By Dr. Bill Johnson T he FA A hosted its f i rst Human Factors in Aviation Maintenance conference in 1988. That's slightly over 25 years ago. Those annual U.S./ International meetings provided exten- sive industrywide education and infor- mation exchange through 2011. Compa ny spec i f ic hu ma n fac- tors training started in 1990, when Continental A irlines started offering a crew resource management (CR M) class to the engineering department. The course contained selected por- 4/3/14 1:53 PM

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