Human Factors in Aviation Maintenance

Human Factors in Aviation Maintenance

• Human factors like fatigue, complacency, and stress are crucial in aviation maintenance, as they contribute to aviation accidents.

Murphy's Law

• Murphy's Law suggests "If something can go wrong, it will."
• "Murphy's Law" is rooted in the human tendency toward complacency.

Human Factors Study

• Health and safety are least associated with the study of human factors.

Engineering Incidents

• Most engineering-related incidents result from installing components incorrectly.

Aircraft Accidents

• Communication issues are a major cause of aircraft accidents.

Peer Pressure

• Peer group pressure relates to behavior is influenced by friends and colleagues.

Task Performance

• An engineer who has unilaterally developed their own way of performing a task is in regular violation of procedure

Supervisory Judgement

• Good aircraft maintenance supervisory judgement is based upon knowledge, experience, and reference to approved data.

Human Factors Programs

• The aim of human factors programs is to optimize the relationship between maintenance personnel and systems, to improve safety, efficiency and well-being

Demotivation

• The symptoms of de-motivation closely resemble stress symptoms.

Motivation

• Motivation is the driving force that propels someone to take action.

Peer Pressure Defined

• Peer pressure includes wanting to conform to what colleagues expect of you.

Effective Group Work

• In effective group work, everyone contributes in some way.

Peer Pressure Situation

• A peer pressure situation involves colleagues pressuring you to work faster so they can go home.

Motivation

• A person is motivated when they take action to achieve something.

Deviation from Procedures

• Young, inexperienced individuals are most likely to deviate from the standard procedures.

Tranquilizers

• If prescribed tranquilizers, one should not work at all while taking them.

Performance

• Performance is inversely proportional to an individual's state of arousal.

Tiredness

• Tiredness causes visual acuity to decrease.

Attention

• Narrowing of attention occurs at high levels of arousal.

Stress Symptoms

• Symptoms of stress includes irritability, forgetfulness, sickness, absence from work, drug and alcohol abuse

Early Sign of Stress

• Finding familiar tasks more complicated than usual can be an early sign of chronic fatigue.

Working Long Shifts

• Excessively long shifts during unsociable hours can decrease the ability to detect defects during aircraft maintenance.

Human Error

• Human error is most likely when the body temperature is at its lowest.

Environmental Stressors

• Environmental noise and heat cause a loss of attention and create distractions.

Environmental Stresses

• Environmental stresses are caused by noise, fumes, heat, and vibration.

Ear Protection Near Aircraft

• Within 200-300 meters of an aircraft with its engine running, ear protection is recommended for maintenance personnel.

Noise Level

• Employers must provide personal ear protectors if the noise level reaches 85 dB.

Environmental Capture

• "Environmental capture" happens repeatedly when an engineer does same job on the same type of aircraft.

Bright Lights

• When working with bright lights, consideration should be given to glare.

Noise Effects

• Noise affects the standard of work with certain people.

Environmental Noise

• Environmental noise decreases concentration and quality of work for an engineer.

Excess Noise

• Excess noise in a work environment lowers resistance to other stresses.

Environment Stresses and Attention

• Environmental stresses and attention can be disturbed and distributed in an extreme high temperature and noisy environment.

Aircraft Maintenance Environment

• Aircraft maintenance is best suited to a well-lit, comfortable hangar.

Effects of Loud Noise

• Intense or loud noise may lead to fatigue.

Airframe Inspections

• To avoid missing a small crack when inspecting an airframe, move your eyes constantly across the area of interest to avoid the crack falling into the eye's natural blind spot.

Bright Artificial Light

• The main disadvantage of carrying out critical inspections under very bright artificial light creates glare.

Checklists

• Itemized checklists should be followed item by item, in order, to cover every step diligently.

Work Handover

• A good work handover involves a written and verbal account of the work done.

Shift Handover Include

• A good shift handover includes completed tasks, tasks in progress, their status, any problems encountered, tasks to be carried out, and general company/technical information.

Communication

• Written communication is most important means of communication in aircraft maintenance engineering.

Unsure Task

• If unsure of a task, consult the appropriate approved data.

SHEL Model

• The SHEL model of human factors considers Software, Hardware, Environment, and Liveware.

SHEL Model and Maintenance Manuals

• The writing and interpretation of maintenance manuals fit into the Software part of the SHEL model.

SHEL Model and Aircraft Design

• Aircraft design fits into the Hardware part of the SHEL model.

SHEL Model - Protecting From Errors

• Liveware is the part of the SHEL model most difficult to protect from errors by 'designing out' or to 'work around'.

Aircraft Maintenance Violation

• A violation in aircraft maintenance is usually carried out with the best intention to get the job done.

Complex Task

• On complex tasks, using own procedures legally termed violation.

Visual Inspections

• Visual inspection by ' experienced' maintenance engineer relates to knowledge and ruled based behavior.

Work Platforms

• Ladders workers use may slip and man falls.

Risk Assessment

• Risk assessment involves reducing risks to a tolerable standard and monitoring the situation.

Risk Assessment - Hard Hat

• During risk assessment, it is necessary to identify where equipment/procedure might fail.

Human Factors Impact

• Human factors can directly cause or contribute to many aviation accidents; it affects the safety of human performance.

Human Factors (List)

• Five human factors that influence human performance are: mental, emotional, physical, environmental state, human limitation/capabilities and human-machine interface.

PEAR Model Uses and Memory Prompt

• The PEAR Model is an error model for assessing and mitigating human factors.
• The memory prompt is PEAR; which stands for People, Environment, Actions, Resources

Murphy's Law Defined

• Murphy's Law “Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.”
• There is a human tendency towards complacency, with accidents always happening to someone else.

Stages of Information Processing

• There are five stages of information processing: gathering, perception/assessment, Conscious Evaluation, Action/Responding, Feedback.

Attention Types

• Five types of attention include: selective, distraction, divided, focused, sustained

Aviation Maintenance

• Individual responsibility personal standards and personal integrity promote increased aviation safety in the workplace.

Personal Standards

• Personal standards include how one treats themselves, how they treat others how they behave in front of others, and how they perform their jobs at the highest level.

Personal Integrity

• Personal Integrity empowers the technician to check that the work is done correctly, and above all else, avoid a resistance to risky behavior, with Good communication can avoid taking risky decisions.

Group Responsibility

• Group responsibility has advantages and disadvantages in an aviation setting.

Stress on the Job

• Stress is the high level of emotional arousal, associated with anxiety, fear, fatigue, and hostility which can have a direct and negative impact on performance.

Symptoms of Stress

• Physiological symptoms, such as sweating, dryness of the mouth.
• Possible health effects are nausea, headaches, sleep problems, stomach upsets.
• Behavioral symptoms, such as restlessness, shaking, nervous laughter, changes to appetite, excessive drinking or smoking.
• Cognitive effects, such as poor concentration, indecision, forgetfulness.
• Subjective effects, such as anxiety, irritability, depression, moodiness, aggression.

Consequences of Stress

• Poor judgement.
• Compromised, or accepting of lower standards.
• Inattention, loss of vigilance and alertness
• Preoccupation with a single task at the expense of others.
• Forgetting or omitting procedural steps.
• Greater tendency towards losing things.
• Misreading maintenance manuals and procedural steps.
• Loss of time perception.

Loss of situational awareness

Creating Positive Work Environment

• Ten ways to create a positive work environment:
  • Build trust.
  • Communicate positively and openly.
  • Expect the best from staff.
  • Create team spirit.
  • Create recognition and appreciation.
  • Give credit and take responsibility.
  • Be approachable.
  • Provide a positive physical environment.
  • Make staff evaluation a positive environment.
  • Make it fun.

Elements Needed in Communication

• The four elements needed in communication:
  • The individual sending the message must present the message clearly, with the necessary detail, and should have credibility.
  • The person receiving the message must be prepared to, and decide to, listen, ask questions if they don't understand something, and trust the person sending the message.
  • The delivery method chosen must suit the circumstances and needs of both sender and receiver.
  • The content of the message has to resonate and connect on some level with the already held beliefs of the receiver.

Communication

• Communication within groups is important to maintain cohesion: Before, During, and At the end of a task
• Communication between teams passes on tasks to another team.

SHEL Model Components Definitions

• The SHEL Model uses human factors considering components:
  • Liveware-Hardware
    • Relationship between the human and the physical attributes of equipment, machines and facilities
  • Liveware-Software
  • Relationship between the human and the supporting systems found in the workplace with regulations, manuals, checklists, publications, standard operating procedures and computer software.
  • Liveware-Liveware
  • interface is the relationship among person in the work environment. important to recognize that communication and interpersonal skills, as well as group dynamics, play a role in determining human performance.
• Liveware-Environment
• interface is the relationship between the human and both the internal and external environment including temperature, ambient light, noise, vibration and air quality

SHEL Acronyms

• S -Misinterpretation of procedure, badly written manuals, poorly designed checklist, untested or difficult to use computer software.
• H not enough tools, inappropriate equipment, poor aircraft design for maintainability.
• E -uncomfortable workplace, inadequate hangar space, extreme temperature, excessive noise and poor lighting.
• L (Team) – relationship with other people, shortage of manpower, lack of supervision and lack of support from managers.
• L (People) – Poor health, Lack of Knowledge, Negative attitude and poor safety cultures.