Addressing Operational Human Factors Issues

LITERATURE REVIEW

In given case the flight operations managers have evaluated their system regarding relationship between flight crew and cabin crew in an aircraft. They have not coordinated with each other in order to inform them about any safety concern or disruptive events. Managers have identified that there are so many issues with cabin crew over the last 12 months, cabin crew is not aware of any hazard that came in the cockpit of the aircraft. After evaluating all factors which can impact flight operations management, these factors has to be removed by the managers with the help of some strategies.

As per evidences which are reviewed by flight operation management, they have identified that there is no interaction and coordination between flight crew and cabin crew in last 1-2 years. They are facing issues in building the relationship between both groups. For the betterment of the flight and the whole organisation; the relationship between the flight crew and cabin crew must be effective. For the maintaining the effectiveness of such relationship and also to improve it the management should have some strategies which can help them to build trust between the groups that could be more beneficial for the aircraft and the negative coordination and interaction can be avoided.

There are so many strategies for maintaining and improving the relationship between cabin crew and flight crew. These strategies can be considered with the reflection of various levels of the Hierarchy of control methodology. This will help in identifying the issues related to the system and the behaviours of individual of both groups.

The Hierarchy of Control have 5-6 levels that could help the flight operations management to resolve the hazards or substitute them with some effective alternatives.

Basically the development of this control was done in different standards which provide the concept to minimize the risk. It helps to make a structure that will assist the designers to make sure about the risk. There are basic 5 levels of hierarchy of control that can be introduced as the strategies to improve the relationship between the employees at workplace.

Effectiveness

In the hierarchy of control each layer has some standards for its measuring its effectiveness. For each failure mode; there is a control measure which is associated with it. Also, it shows the effectiveness of that layer to reduce the risk. As passing through the hierarchy the effectiveness and reliability will be decreased. The user can not have measurement and quantification of reliability and effective working is not possible. Even it is so difficult after selecting some aspects from the each level. The effectiveness of elimination is more than the engineering control which is more effective than awareness means etc.

The level of Hierarchy of Control is shown below:

1. Hazard elimination or substitution

The effectiveness of this layer is highest because it helps to minimize the chances of risk. It follows a simple concept that risk will be zero with the elimination of those particular hazards. It means if the factor that can produce risk for the future environment has removed from the system then probability of risk would be null. Risk comes from the unawareness of the actual functionality and the inappropriate designing of the structure. Suppose an organisation do not have the skilled and qualified employees then it can impact on the performance of the organisation which leads to decrease their market value. So for the risk minimization the organisation can fire those employees who are not working according to their organisation's premises, this can reduce the risk percentage(Nasch and et.al., 2014).

This strategy can be failed in designing process; it works only with t operations, services, products and working environment.

Substitution is process which allows designer to replace existing plans or material with some alternatives which are less risky for system. Material that can harm the human beings and environment cannot be tolerated for long time so that must be substituted from the material which will not affect the environment. If any process impacts whole system then it should be substituted from another one so operations can be smoother and less dangerous. In many cases there are some materials or some equipment which are beneficial for the organisation but on the other hand it makes a lot of problems for the people of the society, so organisation can replace it with an efficient one.

If substitution of material is reintroduced into a process then it will go to primary failure mode. More failure modes can be created by substitute component so it would be risky for user for using t final product. Substitution should be considered so carefully by the management. If the elimination of components and substitution both are not possible then management can go for next level of hierarchy(Paillé and et.al., 2014).

2. Engineering controls

The engineering control is basically depends on technological guards. Various mechanical guards can be used for the controlling the system. The mechanical guards like interlocking systems, safeguarding devices such as light curtains and fences, scanners, sensors, safety equipment, safety mats and controls with two hand. The nature and tendency of these kinds of guards is quite proactive. It can prevent the system to access the components of the area that may be hazardous for them, the injury will be prevented due to the prevention to hazards.

The reliability of this control can be evaluated by identifying their placement in the system. The control system is not reliable on the barrier guards and fixed guards because to analyse the effectiveness they are not relied on it. But the engineering controls like safeguarding devices, interlocking guards, light fences, scanner for area scanning, safety edges, the control system depends on all these mechanical guards. The placement of the safety devices should be correct which will help to stop the working of hazards. The safety devices should be integrated into the sensitive areas. As the risk amount is decreased the degree of reliability increased.

The failure in the engineering control come due to inappropriate use of devices and guards. If the different variation of devices and different integration methods are used for the controlling then it will go to the failure mode.

The awareness devices can be used for controlling on the system, there are so many devices like warning lights, horns, buzzers, bells etc. Basically these devices are used in the machine control system but they can notify the user about the useful information. The HMI screens are used to show the indication or warning lights which will give the notification about such information for use.

For the awareness devices there are also some modes of failure which can be seen if the user have ignored the warnings from the system. If the maintenance of the device are not proper then efficiency of control devices will be decreased. The inappropriate placement and use of devices can switcht the control system to the failure mode.

There is one more component in the engineering control known as complimentary protective measure. In this class of controls the control is completely apart from the safeguarding devices. The injury will not be prevented through this control but it can minimize the probability of the injury. The nature of complimentary protective measures are reactive that means the automation is not supported by this control. The each operation done manually like emergency button has to be pressed in case of emergency. The automatic system only have the compliment from the complimentary protective measures.

These controls have some failure modes that may be seen if the simple failure came by replacing a fixed guard to the electrical, pneumatic or hydraulic controls. The functional safety engineering has the ability that probability of failure can be analysed and for reducing the probability of the failure the new elements designed additionally.

3. Information for use

The information in the data which can be used to evaluate the things for the execution of a particular task or project. There are so many stuffs that are included in this scenario such as manuals of any organization's working or manual of any equipment, the labels of information on a product, different warning labels for warning like sign and indicators, HMI screen that been an interface between the user and warning lights, indicators to notify the user about any hazard, warning lights used to warn the user, the material that can be used for the training and development of the employees of any particular organization, videos consisting information about anything related to the topic, relative photographs, drawings, the bills of materials which are used for any kind of operations like production, manufacturing, supply etc.

Development of the materials can be done with the help of some standards that are decided under this hierarchy of control. These excellent standards are giving the guideline to user that it can make the strategy for development so easily. In an organization each department have to maintain the records of the each operation, so that should be proper for the beneficial working. This can help the management to make sure about their working efficiency and also the economic conditions can be identified from the written records. There are plenty of analysis done by the organization to know about the individual performance of their employees and overall performance of the organization(Brownell and et.al., 2014).

The failure mode of this layer have some elements like if the written content is not up to the mark or the collection of the material is incomplete then it may fail. The language used in the material should be understood by the user, if not then it takes into the failure mode. The user must be able to read and understand the requirement of that material, if not then it will definitely fail. The timing is so important, if the user is unable to search the data while required then this level of hierarchy of control would be failed.

4. Administrative controls

The administration tools is the next level of hierarchy which have the training and development program, standard operating procedures, safe working procedures like hazardous energy control, the locking devices, in case of permission granted by law then Tagout can be used and so on. The authentication agreement and authorization under which the private information should be confidential. The supervising process to make sure about the each process and operation and the security premises(Podgórski, 2015).

The failure modes of this level are known as the management fails to train their employees, the workers are not informed about the hazards and the relevant risks, failure in creating and implementing the SOP will let the control to failure mode. Failure to adopt and maintain the special equipment for the implementation of SOp. Lack of formality in authorization also leads to failure and if the supervision is not done adequately then it will let this level to failure mode.

5. Personal protective equipment

This is the last level of hierarchy of control in which the equipment are included which are used for the personal protection. Safety glasses, hard hats and bump caps for the protection of head, the fire- retardant clothing, hearing defenders, the working boots. In some organizations the employees wore some warning devices as a gear that helps them to warn the other employee in the relative situation. There are some detectors like gas detectors, person- down detectors etc(Khalili and Duecker, 2013).

This level is not that much effective because it can be adopted by any individual and least understood risk control measure. There are some reason why it falls at the last position in the hierarchy of control. This is considered as measure of last resort in the control level. The hazard is allowed to come close to the person which is so dangerous also the specification of this is done incorrectly. The PPE is poor to fit in the controlling methods, people have nor maintained it properly because people used it improperly. If the equipment are comfortable then user can use it for ling time but uncomfortable equipment are not acceptable by the user(Fairbanks, and et.al., 2014).

Failure modes include incorrect specification, improper fitting, poor maintenance, if the person use it improperly then it fails also the failure may come from untrained and uninformed users.

FINDINGS

The hierarchy of control have 5 levels, each level can be adopted for improving and maintaining the operations of an organization accordingly. As per the given scenario the main issue is the poor coordination between the cabin crew and flight crew. The managers have done their evaluation so during the safety data review meeting they have said that the adequate information about the safety concerns and disruptive events have not meet the cabin crew because the members are not informed that what is information and how to use it in the effective manner.

The managers of the aircraft can adopt the first strategies as the elimination and substitution. According to this they have to eliminate such employees who are not capable to maintain the decorum of the aircraft. They must hire some skilled person for the cabin crew and flight crew. These members should understand the performance objectives of the aircraft. The managers can substitute their existing safety control with the other one that cabin crew can easily understand its functionality. If the each member understands their duties and management has informed them correctly them their relationship would be better.

Information for use is the another strategies that can be used for making good relationship between the crew members. The managers have to maintain their records in which they can consider the performance level of the employees and also the behaviour of the individual regarding his duty can be added. The managers should inform each individual about the important information that has to be used to acknowledge the system of the aircraft. The information about the safety controls and other functions will be given to them.

The administration control is the third strategies that will be so effective for improving the relationship between the crew members. By giving them proper training about the whole system members will work more efficiently. The application of standard operating procedures will be so effective in building better relationship. The proper supervision and authorization by the managers can lift the relationship between crew members so high.

Conclusion

This report have concluded that the levels of hierarchy of control are so effective to improve the operational management and the relationship between the cabin crew and flight crew. The information for use is the best strategy which can be used to inform the employee about the each and every hazard and risk related to it. The hierarchy of control have engineering control in which the mechanical guards are used by the management to ensure about the hazards. The elimination and substitution is also an effective strategy because it falls to remove and replace the factors that are producing the hazards for the system.

Recommendations

The hierarchy of control can be used by the user for improving so many processes in particular organization. In the aircraft the security is so sensitive area so the management should have the updated safety control system which will help to make their private data confidential and the passengers would be safe. The aircraft should have a walk with the latest technologies that they can adopt in their system to attract more passengers to their airline and this will make the economic benefits for the organization.

References

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