Excellence or Mediocrity
By Catalina9
The beauty of
excellence or mediocrity is that these are choices and options. Every single
airport or airline can operate without one single Transport Canada finding.
Excellence in operations is a choice and not a condition. There are no good
reasons that an enterprise should be given findings after an inspection. Clarity
in operations accounts for probably 80% of success and happiness. Lack of
clarity is more responsible for frustration and underachievement than any other
single factor. That’s why we say that "Success is goals and all else is
commentary." A simple first step is to comply with the Safety
Management System is to set goals for your operations.
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The perfect first step for a goal
achievement plan.
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Operators with
clear, written goals, accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than
operators without them could ever imagine. This is true everywhere and under
all circumstances. Only by discovering your innate strengths...by developing
them...exploiting them to their highest degree--can your organization ever
fully realize the greatest amount of satisfaction and enjoyment in everything
you do. A simple first step is to comply with the Safety Management System
clear communication commitment for your enterprise.
A goal without a
plan is just a wish. Between your operations and every goal that you plan to
achieve, there are series of obstacles. The bigger your goal, the bigger the
obstacles. Your goal achievement plan is to reach a step of attainable goals to
use as building blocks.
Your goal
achievement plan is the single difference between excellence and mediocrity in operations.
If you don't design plans, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan.
And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.
The Safety
Management System is a businesslike approach to safety. What this imply is that
you treat your SMS just like any other operational support systems. SMS is not
a safety-magic system. If you are too comfortable about safety, it’s time to
move on. The trap one could fall into is to treat SMS as the king of safety that
will automatically eliminate all incidents.
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| Include your team in the second step of a goal achievement plan. |
Both airports and
airlines should already have set achievable goals of what to do about
bird-strikes. Airports has a simpler task than airlines, since they can scare
birds away from the airfield. This mitigation could easily increase the risk
level for airlines, that the birds now are in the approach, but farther away
from the airport. That an airport scares birds away does not ensure that the
birds are scared away from the approaches or the departure path. Airports also
have the option to implement the Airport Zoning Regulations (AZR) as a bird
control tool. It’s frightening to see that the majority of airports reject to
apply this option as their bird control tool. The bird migration seasons are
common cause variations that does not change since they are embedded in the
processes. However, the AZR is available as a local tool for root cause
analysis of special cause bird activities.
For airlines the
bird hazard is viewed through the windshield of an airplane. The AZR is a tool
to change birds’ behavior and direction of travel, but there are currently no
tools available to clear birds from a jet-engine’s air intake, approaches or
departure paths. Jet engines needs air to produce thrust and there is no tool
available to deflect airflow and birds away from the inlets. There is no doubt
that a deflection tool could be developed, but the risk of birds causing one or
two engine shutdown has a low probably risk rating. The task for an airline, is
to convey this risk rating and ensure the flying public that birds is not an
immediate hazard to aviation safety. Another option is to make bird-strikes a
positive flying experience for the passengers.
When applying a
businesslike approach to SMS, data is applied to decision making processes. A
business will not generate a higher revenue and higher cash flow by wishing it
was true. The aviation industry will not generate safety by wishing for safety.
A successful business checks their bank account for cash flow daily or more to
ensure continuous success, while this same business only checks their SMS
account monthly or less. It’s time to apply a businesslike approach to SMS and
be terrified of what’s next. That’s when you know that you are on the right
track. The difference in excellence in operation or mediocrity is in the application
of the Safety Management System itself.
Catalina9
