ASCI 202: Team-Based Human Factors

   

 As a flying crew chief, team-based human factors are an integral part of my job because not only do we fly a two maintainer team but we are part of the aircrew and fall under their crew resource management.  To me, human factors in aviation are defined as the inherit traits of human beings performing aviation tasks that could lead to errors. The FAA defines human factors in maintenance as issues that affect human performance which can be from human psychology, workplace limitations, aircraft design, etc(MX HF Presentation System, 2019).

     An example of how human factors can affect a team activity would be during an aircraft tire change where usually a team of 2 or 3 mechanics are needed on bigger jets. On the C-17 we had a team of 5 or 6 because of the complicated process to prepare for the tire change. The challenges of working in a team on a maintenance task can be overwhelming as you get teammates with varying experience, varying moods, and alternative ways to completing the task to name a few. These challenges all complicate the task and make room for errors. With varying experience comes the challenge of the less experience not doing something correctly or the old head who takes a short cut, both of which could cause a mishap. A person's mood is a big human factor on how well a task can go, in a team activity the person who doesn't feel like being there could jeopardize the safety of the others by missing a vital step. Lastly, if two people fight over how to do something the end result could be of lower quality than if everyone worked together. These are all major challenges in maintenance tasks but there are ways to mitigate them.

    All of these challenges can be overcome by following the aircraft tech data because it is broken down to simple clear instructions that are not influenced by emotions or other human issues. Following the book you would not run into different ways to complete the task and the need for experience is reduced as the instructions are exactly what is needed to do. Another action to mitigate the human factors is to do a pre-brief of the task and plan out who is going to do which parts so the best person for each position is already picked out. These are just a couple of the techniques to reduce human factors.

References:

MX HF Presentation System. (2019, December 31). Federal Aviation Administration. https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/maintenance_hf/training_tools/