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Speech

20th Annual International Symposium on Human Factors in Maintenance and Ramp Safety

Thank you, Jay (Hiles), for that gracious introduction, and many thanks to our co-sponsor — ATA — and the organizers for all the work to put together this international symposium.  Let me also recognize and thank Lynne Thompson and Boeing, our primary sponsor, for all you have done to make this meeting possible.

This is the 20^th FAA/ATA Symposium on Human Factors in Maintenance and Ramp Safety. When we started holding these — in the late 1980s — we called them meetings on human factors issues in aircraft maintenance and inspection. The conference has evolved to address safety in the hangar, shops, and almost everywhere on the airport. 

A lot has changed in two decades. We are pleased the conference has more formally acknowledged the critical importance of safety on the ramp. Our industry’s ramp workers are dealing with busy airports and with aircraft of all sizes. Passenger traffic has nearly doubled in twenty years. Airplanes are not only bigger. They are more complicated and this presents added challenges for both ramp workers and maintenance technicians.

The Airbus 380, for one, which carries more than twice as many people as are here today, is loaded with advanced technologies, including electronic flight controls and very different hydraulic systems than we have been used to maintaining. In fact, the A380 has more than 310 miles of electrical wiring.

Other changes since those first meetings include new aircraft types, such as very light jets and unmanned aircraft, which are entering the National Airspace System at rapid rates. Boeing’s 787 boasts new technology that includes the use of composite material within the primary structure. It, too, brings human factors implications, which we must address.

Then, add changing business models, the growing domestic and international manufacturing and repair industry, and the challenging economic climate.  These all have crucial implications for human factors and aviation safety.

Yet, some things haven’t changed in twenty years. One thing that hasn’t changed is the dedication and professionalism of the people who come to this meeting. In fact, we have some new faces this year. I thank every one of you for coming and I am particularly pleased by the strong FAA turnout.

It is great to see so many FAA safety employees here at this conference. Would all of the FAA employees please stand up and be recognized.

We also have some folks who have been coming to these meetings since the beginning … and who have been working as hard as ever on human factors issues. Bill Johnson, FAA’s Chief Scientific and Technical Advisor for Human Factors in Aircraft Maintenance Systems, for one, has attended all twenty meetings.

Where is John Goglia?  John, please stand.  I know you were at that first meeting. And, I know how hard you have worked over the years to raise the profile and the professionalism of maintenance human factors.

Are there others here today who have been coming to these gatherings for a number of years — say for five or six meetings?  Please stand and be recognized for your outstanding — and your long-term — commitment to aviation safety.

Bill reminds me that this community has come a long way — to be sure, in the number of the people attending this meeting — but more importantly, to the level of commitment to address human factors issues in maintenance and on the ramp. 

From those first meetings with a small number of academics, this meeting has grown to a “who’s who” in human factors research, in technical and operational maintenance and ramp professionals, to FAA inspectors, and more.

The point:  We are working together to create human factors programs that contribute to our outstanding safety record, that prevent accidents, and that save lives. What a great maintenance human factors success story.

Twenty years.  We’ve been hard at it for a long time. Let’s look back over the past two decades and see just how far we’ve come, but, more importantly, look at where we must now focus our efforts and energy.

At that early meeting in 1989 the several dozen or so professionals gathered in Alexandria, Virginia, determined that the biggest human factor issue — by far — affecting maintenance was communication.

As the first meeting’s executive summary stated:  “More recommendations centered on communication than for any other topic discussed.” For one, the group agreed they needed to meet again. This recommendation was clearly followed and followed faithfully. These regular meetings have been extremely productive and have promoted the networking that the “pioneers” of maintenance human factors advocated 20 years ago.

Yes, through networking, communication, and commitment, we have come a long way. Over 20 years, these meetings have progressed from providing the essential scientific foundations of human factors to forging professional relationships to sharing practical programs that now pervade our industry.

Whether you are in China, Europe, or the Americas maintenance and ramp personnel are using the same vocabulary and the same tools to address human performance challenges. The diversity of this week’s international speakers is proof of that!

Concepts like DuPont’s Dirty Dozen … Tools such as Boeing’s Maintenance Error Decision Aid (or MEDA process) … as well as Professor James Reason’s breakthroughs about the essential components of a safety culture are now widely understood and applied.

Bill Johnson’s and Mike Maddox’s PEAR model has simplified the concept of maintenance human factors and is “bearing fruit” and providing crucial safety benefits to maintenance organizations.

Furthermore, we are still learning and probing the mysteries — the boundaries — of human performance. This year, FAA’s Research and Development in maintenance human factors also celebrates two decades. The projects run the gamut from basic scientific research to practical development of software tools and procedures. Most importantly, the vast majority of the work is readily available and is relevant as ever.

We recently initiated an R & D project to help incorporate non-routine audits — or Line Operations Safety Audits — into the maintenance and ramp environment. This program — as has been done on the flight deck — permits peers to formally observe normal day-to-day operations and identify what is going right and also document opportunities to improve. It will likely become integral with other proactive Safety Management System activities for technical operations. I want you to know that this is yet another activity that is an industry – government cooperation effort. We are working with the ATA Ground Safety Committee on this project.

More specifically, bringing everyone together from across the community — the regulators, practitioners, and human factors experts — has helped inform us at the FAA about what we can do better, about how we can help, and about what resources we can provide to the community.

This is why Bill and Jay and others have worked with industry to provide tools, such as the “Operator’s Manual for Maintenance Human Factors” and an “Operator’s Manual for Airport Services.” Both are available in your conference materials.  More recently, our team produced the Maintenance Human Factors Presentation System. Have you seen it?  

Our Flight Standards Division, along with the Chief Scientist Program, created this new software system. Our airworthiness safety inspectors told us they needed tools to deliver human factors training and, specifically, they needed tools they could customize. The good news is that the new system works just as well for industry as it does for our inspectors!

The group who met in Alexandria 20 years ago also called for a database of maintenance information that could be shared.  The group was right on target then about the need for shared information. With the industry’s growth and greater complexity, the need is even more imperative today.

We must get smarter about having the right information to make risk-based safety decisions and to prioritize our actions. We cannot wait for the next accident. We must move to a “prognostic” or predictive approach. We will always use our forensic, after-the-fact methods, but with fewer accidents and more complex systems, the challenge now — and into the future — is to be able to take preemptive action and prevent accidents.

To do this, we need critical safety data. Just as important, we need analytical expertise to do predictive analysis to discern trends and identify precursors. And, we need to share what we learn. This is exactly what we are doing with our Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing initiative, which is becoming known by its acronym:  ASIAS.

ASIAS already counts twelve airlines among its members. It includes ASAP and FOQA data, among other sources. ASIAS also leverages internal FAA datasets and other data. These are early days for ASIAS, but it has already demonstrated the power of data. We have used this data to uncover precursors for wrong runway departures, for Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System alerts, and for TCAS Resolution Alerts. Shortly, we will be adding reports from FAA air traffic controllers through the new Air Traffic Safety Action Program. As for maintenance data, we will be adding ASAP data from air carrier maintenance employees and from repair and overhaul organizations.

I see that “Fatigue Challenges” is on the agenda for tomorrow morning. At that those first gatherings 20 years ago, fatigue was almost an afterthought. The 1989 report said:  “The first step is to determine whether fatigue is a problem.”

Today, we no longer need to determine whether fatigue is a problem. We know it is. Fatigue is a serious concern. In June, FAA held its first-ever Fatigue Management Symposium.  Experts from around the globe shared the science of fatigue as well as the best practices on fatigue mitigation and management. For the symposium, we set out to accomplish three things: 

• One, provide the most current information on fatigue physiology, management, and mitigation alternatives;
• Two, share information and perspectives among decision makers and scientists about fatigue management; and
• Three, discuss fatigue mitigation concepts and best practices.

 We accomplished all three in a highly successful session. At the symposium, we broke into discussion groups by class of employee and/or type of work. We had a group for short-haul / multi-leg flying and another for international long haul.

Jay Hiles led the group with the greatest energy. This group addressed issues and challenges for Maintenance, Ramp Operations and Dispatch. I know that many of you were with us in June at the Fatigue Symposium … so you know about the challenges our industry faces with shift work.

In June, this energized group of maintenance professionals identified the major fatigue challenges and drivers … the barriers to addressing fatigue … and delineated mitigation strategies. Most in the group were not ready to sit and wait for specific duty-time regulation. The better course was seen to be integrating fatigue management as a fundamental element of safety management.

Right now, the team that put together the Fatigue Symposium is compiling the Symposium  information and presentations into “Proceedings.” Our plan is to distribute the Proceedings to Symposium participants and others in the next several weeks.

Then, as next steps, we will consolidate the information from the Symposium into FAA guidance materials for industry and our field personnel.  The purpose:  Make clear that fatigue must be considered in the wide range of aviation operations and to establish a common understanding of fatigue for all parties. 

Also, we will be working with industry to define Fatigue Risk Management Systems to assist aviation operations in effective application of fatigue countermeasures.  And, we are taking advantage of developments in fatigue science to model and mitigate fatigue aspects of Ultra Long Range (ULR) flying.  This is our proactive use of science and data, which did not exist when most of us entered this dynamic and ever-changing industry.  

In the beginning, attending these human factors meetings may have felt a bit like being a “Maytag repairman” — an almost solitary pursuit.  No longer. Now, human factors in maintenance and ramp safety is a high priority at FAA, for airlines, and for maintenance organizations.

This is because of you and your commitment, your professionalism, and your perseverance. Please continue to provide the leadership, the wisdom, and the practices to ensure we always recognize — no matter what technology brings — that there will always be humans in the loop to ensure continued airworthiness.

Here’s to you — passionate and professional “humans in the loop.” My best wishes for a highly successful 20^th meeting!