this happen, and what affects it?” for each of your work tasks. This step will help you better understand context and produce viable solutions, or safety capacity. Using a simple flowchart can help you visualize each of the steps in this process and account for all your sys- tem’s activities (see sample, p. 72). As an example, for a patrol-type mission, you might begin documenting the process with the crew brief, followed by the aircraft preflight. Then, add the start-up, taxi/takeoff/departure, en route, on station, and so on. For each of these steps, you’ll want to brainstorm the different possible hazards and the factors contributing to them. During the preflight, for example, you might list as potential hazards working at heights, fuel spillage, unfa- vorable environ- mental conditions (heat or rain), miss- ing tools, and blown debris from nearby aircraft. Or, during the enroute phase you might identify the potential for bird strikes, engine failure, air traffic collision, weather-related issues, and airborne obstacles. Once you’ve identified the hazards, you can assess the risk of them occurring and their potential impact. Last, you’ll want to identify the controls or mitigation that will reduce the likelihood of any of these hazards causing harm (such as additional training, alternative routes, new equipment, and the like). Creating a flowchart may seem like a time-intensive
With your processes documented, you now have an effective tool for training, budgeting, and demonstrating your diligence to the public, customers, insurance providers, lawyers, and regulators.
The Rewards of Doing Your Homework I get that you’re managing a business and trying to gen- erate revenue. However, I urge you to think of the impact an unanticipated hazard event resulting in dam- age, injury, or—worst case—a fatality could have on your organization. Looking beyond the harm to your reputa- tion and finances, consider first your employees and families (yours and theirs), the emotional strain such an event could place on them, and the potentially lasting effects (if the event doesn’t cause you to cease your operation). I can’t promise that completing a comprehensive sys- tem description will be a panacea, but I can promise that by composing one you’ll produce greater awareness, build engagement, and gain perspec- tive on and better understanding of the context in which you operate. As a result, your organization will
improve its margins for safety, produce more reliable outcomes, and create success by planning for the nec- essary support. Numerous owners and managers who’ve completed
system descriptions have told me they discovered vari- ous hazards and solutions they hadn’t previously thought of, despite being in business for many years. Be aware: maintaining system descriptions is a con-
way to document processes, and maybe that’s why so many organizations don’t complete this crucial step. Often, they say it’s too time-consuming; they have other, more important things to do; their operation is too small for it to matter; or they already know what they need to do. Everybody hates to do their homework! It’s also common—when organizations do document their processes—for them to neglect to include the peo- ple performing the work and the process owners (typi- cally the department or division leaders, such as the director of operations or the director of maintenance). Reasons given include the individuals are never available or it’s inconvenient to include them. But involving the people who perform the work will help you more effec- tively identify what takes place, because they’re the spe- cialists and are closest to the potential hazards your system faces.
74 ROTOR MARCH 2023
tinuous work in progress; you should expect to review them regularly for adequacy and change. But with your processes documented, you now have an effective tool for training, budgeting, and demonstrating your diligence to the public, customers, insurance providers, lawyers, and regulators. The work involved in following this approach to hazard identification isn’t overwhelming. For it to provide real perspective, however, every operator—large or small— must take it seriously. You’ll find it’s a much more effec- tive and less costly method of risk management than waiting for the consequence to occur. Our industry and your operation depend on the ability
to effectively manage the risk exposures we encounter every day. By doing a little extra homework, you’ll be on a path to safety and reliability. The Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Conklin said it
best: “Create stability and have the capacity to fail safely.”
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