In the era where increased incidents and accidents are attributed to flight crew non-adherence to procedures, what can be done to ensure increased SOP compliance?
First and foremost is that the SOP need to be documented and
they need to be seen as relevant to the operating crew, to ensure compliance.
Safety culture or the operating culture should be such that
the operating crew take pride in compliance and are motivated which obviously
needs to percolate right from the top in an organization.
Feedback needs to be evaluated and ploughed back into
procedures, and non-compliance of a procedure or a task needs to be
investigated to ascertain whether it is adequate, clear and concise.
Motivating crew and inculcating the discipline to follow
laid down procedures when not being watched over, goes a long way in enhancing
safety of the operation. After all, the crew should find the procedures
relevant and believe that its important for safe operation of aircraft.
Effective implementation of “just culture” in reporting will
facilitate increased voluntary procedural deviation reporting, which in turn
will lead to specific procedures that are not working well to be amended and
make it relevant to crew and the operation as a whole.
Finally, a pat on the back to all who are complying with the
procedures, will go a long way in ensuring more joining the tribe leading to
increased compliance.
Do you have any strategy in mind that you thing will help
increase SOP compliance??? Drop in a line and share the same.
This takes me back to KLM- Royal Dutch Airlines , training college days. Invested good many months in Amsterdam learning skills on flight operations, flight planning , flight plans, meteo, notams, weight and balance et al.
ReplyDeleteAn important focus was paid by the instructors , in not only asking for correct answers , but seeking inputs to the questions answer by asking the referral "Page & sub sections" .
SOP manuals thus became not only a Bible of aviation's systems & procedures , but keeping updates recurrent by quoting " Page" became a method of updated knowledge.
All crew briefing matters, subjects , policies were substantiated by referring to the current " Page" thus a sub-section of practice in use.
The scientific way of updating the SOP manuals and every users acknowledgment ensuring updates in knowledge and being read thus became a habit for all operational personals in KLM.
SOP-s are heart and soul of any operational process, more so with Aviation , were the objective first is " safety first " . Practicing SOP's thus is religion & culture of Aviation personal.
With IT interfaces , laptops, palm-tops and i-pads. Sharing and handling of SOP manuals & practices have become more user friendly. i sincerely hope , we continue to maintain the importance to his subject as highlighted by Capt Srinivas Rao in his blog today.
I thank my previous employers for inculcating these habits .