From management’s perspective of distraction and
fatigue, fatigue is easy. A fatigue risk management plan is straightforward. Now, let’s not get too wrapped around this fancy label. We are talking about basic scheduling of work. As noted earlier, each repair station has a requirement to “ensure it has a sufficient number of employees” to perform maintenance. If we are actively managing the scheduling system, the daily routine issues of fatigue risk should be minimized. That allows management to focus on managing fatigue caused by that episodic workload caused by unforeseen events or emergency responses. As I write this column, the firefighting in Australia comes to mind. The firebombers and their crews are working overtime, and managing fatigue and errors caused by fatigue is critical. The last item for management is workplace distractions. If you consider the United States Department of
Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on distracted driving and understand that there is a parallel between distracted driving and distracted maintenance, this gives us some logical elements to focus. The NHTSA defines distracted driving as “any activity that diverts attention from driving, including talking or texting on your phone, eating and drinking, talking to people in your vehicle, fiddling with the stereo, entertainment or navigation system – anything that takes your attention away from the task of safe driving.” I suggest that a distracted workplace is anything that takes your attention away from the maintenance task. We work in aviation. We, hopefully, work at an airport.
We love airplane noise. And every taxiing aircraft does grab our attention. But notwithstanding that, what about the other distractions in the hangar? Texting? Visitors? Customers? How do you manage the known distractions? While we are talking about everyone’s responsibilities to understand and manage elements that can negatively affect human performance, what are the national aviation authorities doing to negatively affect human performance? Perhaps the worst “distraction” in the workplace is an authority audit. Where is the technician’s mind as the auditor walks around the floor, interrupting maintenance, causing stress? This isn’t to say that the audits shouldn’t be done, but please understand that everyone from the technician on the floor to management to the authority can and does have a responsibility for managing human factors. How do the authorities manage their impact on human factors?
Republished with permission from the February 2020 issue of Avionics News magazine, a monthly publication of the Aircraft Electronics Association (
www.aea.net).
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