Excellence or Mediocrity

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.

The perfect first step for a goal achievement plan.

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.

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