Human Factors in Aviation Maintenance

 Human Factors

    Human factors in aviation are arguably the most important factors when it comes to safe and efficient operation of aircraft. Some key elements to human factors in aircraft maintenance are training and qualification, motivation, and initiative. Receiving the appropriate training and qualification for certain jobs is very important, as some jobs require specialization to complete appropriately. Motivation and initiative are important as well. If maintainers do not utilize proper initiative during maintenance inspections for example, they may miss discrepancies or overlook a potential safety hazard. There are many responsibilities in aviation maintenance that fall on the shoulders of individual maintainers and technicians, but most of the time it takes more than one person to properly maintain an aircraft or a fleet of them. 

    Some challenges that are often encountered when maintaining a fleet of aircraft is keeping up with all of the required scheduled maintenance, and balancing the required tasks to prevent overworking certain specialists and expending certain required consumable materials. Another challenge frequently faced is training newer maintainers to become proficient at their jobs while also keeping the fleet properly maintained and completing jobs in a timely manner. However, there are strategies to face these challenges safely and efficiently.

Challenge Mitigation Strategies

    There are a few strategies that every level of a maintenance enterprise can use to help encounter challenges like the ones mentioned in this blog. Firstly, having a well structured maintenance schedule that balances workloads on particular specialists and equipment. This leaves ample time to replenish consumable materials that may be used in certain maintenance tasks, allows for training time between larger jobs, as well as allows for time to accomplish any required unscheduled maintenance that may arise. 

    Another aforementioned challenge is balancing on the job training into the maintenance workload, as training takes more time and sometimes resources to accomplish when compared to a job being completed with fully trained individuals. Both through effective scheduling and task management, training can be effectively worked into the schedule to allow for safe and time-efficient training on jobs that require it. 

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References:

King, N. (2020, September 25). Schoolhouse Innovation: Special Operations Maintainers Get Creative to keep unique Aircraft. 919th Special Operations Wing. Retrieved August 1, 2022, from https://www.919sow.afrc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2363998/schoolhouse-innovation-special-operations-maintainers-get-creative-to-keep-uniq/

Human factors in aviation maintenance. Human Factors in Aviation Maintenance | Federal Aviation Administration. (n.d.). Retrieved August 1, 2022, from https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/maintenance_hf

Human factors division. FAA Human Factors Division. (n.d.). Retrieved August 1, 2022, from https://www.hf.faa.gov/