The Multi-party World of Aircraft Maintenance:A Case for Systemic Management and Human Factors Education

This paper presents a model which is representative of the current environment within which most domestic repair stations performing work for air carriers operate. The model illustrates how the successful habits of visionary companies, as documented by Collins and Porras (1997), could be applied to the aviation industry and how Human Factors education could be used to effect a long-term change in the aviation safety culture.

A review of the current research on Human Factors in maintenance strongly indicates that the various types of training programs have been effective in raising the awareness of safety issues among the participants, but the applications of those principles to advance safety have been limited by the absence of a systemic management vision. An incremental and radical change in the aviation safety culture could be sought by educating the future workforce in using Human Factors in maintenance and management practices.