Maintenance Organisation Safety Policy

Safety and quality policy  is the part of the MOE.                                                                Safety policy define the  management’s intentions in terms of commitment to ensuring that aircraft are returned to service after maintenance in a safe condition.                                                      Organisation should list (ideally in the MOE) the processes which contribute towards safety, including                                                                                                                        

  1. quality processes, 
  2. reporting scheme(s) for defects, hazards, safety concerns, occurrences, quality discrepancies, quality feedback, maintenance errors, poor maintenance data, poor procedures, poor work instructions,  
  3.  appropriate training (including human factors training), 
  4. shift/task handover procedures. 

             The organisation should state how it addresses, or plans to address, these issues.  AM is  responsible for establishing and promoting the company safety policy.                                        Safety policy  include a commitment to addressing the human factors elements within the organisation. In addition to defining top level responsibility, specific roles and responsibilities at other senior and middle management levels within the company should be clearly defined, with individuals being clear as to their roles in implementing the company safety policy.                                                                                                                                              It is not realistic to place sole responsibility for safety on one individual, since safety is affected by many factors, some of which may be outside their control. However, it is realistic to place responsibility upon AM to ensure that the organisation has in place the training, processes, tools, etc. which will promote safety.                                                                                      If the accountable manager, and other staff to whom he has devolved responsibility for action, find themselves in a situation where commercial and safety priorities potentially conflict, they should remind themselves of the content of the organisation’s safety policy which they have committed to support.

           The wording of the safety and quality policy is important. The actual wording will probably vary between organisations.                                                                                                              As a minimum, the policy should commit to: 

  1.  recognising safety as a prime consideration at all times;
  2.  applying human factors principles; 
  3.  encouraging personnel to report maintenance related errors/ incidents without fear of automatic punitive action.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           In addition, it should include the need for all personnel to comply with procedures, quality standards, safety standards and regulations.                                                                                                                                                                                                                   It is all very well having a policy which states all the right things, but all staff (senior management, certifying staff, mechanics, planners, stores staff, contractors, etc) have to actually subscribe to it and put it into practice in order to achieve the aims of having such a policy in the first place. Evidence indicates that actual practice does not always reflect policies and procedures.                                                                                        Ultimately it is the responsibility of the accountable manager to see that practice, procedures and policies do not conflict. Double standards, where senior  management claim to require strict adherence to procedures by staff on the one hand, whilst ‘turning a blind eye’ or even unofficially condoning ‘work-arounds’ (involving some form of procedural violation) on the other hand, are unacceptable. If the procedures are good, then staff should work to them and receive management support to do so; if the procedures are poor then it is the responsibility of management to try to improve them. Senior management should also look closely at the performance indicators which they set, and which are set for them, and highlight any potential conflictions between these performance indicators and safety objectives. Performance indicators on which bonuses or penalties are set are more often commercially based than safety based, and may result in safety being compromised in order to meet performance targets. 

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