Federal Aviation Administration William B. Johnson, Ph.D. Chief Scientific and Technical Advisor Human Factors in A/C Maintenance Systems [email protected]

Federal AviationAdministration

William B. Johnson, Ph.D.

Chief Scientific and Technical Advisor

Human Factors in A/C Maintenance Systems

[email protected]

ADVANCING THE HUMAN FACTORS BUSINESS CASE:Maintenance Human Factors

14th Symposium on Aviation PsychologyDayton, OH,April 25, 2007

ADVANCING THE HUMAN FACTORS BUSINESS CASE:Maintenance Human Factors14th Symposium on Aviation PsychologyDayton, April 25, 2007


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Human Factors #1 Causal Factor

Human Factors

Maintenance



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Presentation Topics

Operator‘s Manual for HF in Aviation Maintenance (4)

ROI Discussion and Examples (12)

Discussion as Time Permits



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www.hf.faa.gov/opsmanual



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Sample display from Op’s manual



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3 key references plus slides



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Presentation Topics






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The Reality of Sustainment and Justification

• Continental Airlines had a HF program and does not now!

• US Airways had a HF program and does not now!

• Northwest had a HF program and does not now!

• Some airlines had an HF person , not now…….

WHY?



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• Assigning cost to a particular challenge/event

• Establishing cost of intervention

• Matching HF intervention to performance change

• Assigning value to what did not happen

• Add your reasons here……

ROI Challenges - What is it difficult?



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Here are Example ROI Approaches*

• Cost vs. Lost Product Production

• Costs of R&D and Returns – FAA Style

• Justification from Improved Work Performance

• “Trust Me”: A NonAnalytic Approach

* Described in paper



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Five steps to calculate ROI RATIO

1. Estimate annual cost of a specific event: COST

2. Estimate cost to address the contributing factors: COST TO FIX

3. Estimate the probability the COST TO FIX will be successful:

PROBABILITY OF SUCCESS

4. Multiply COST times PROBABILITY OF SUCCESS and then subtract

COST TO FIX: RETURN

5. Divide RETURN by COST TO FIX: ROI RATIO



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Example : Ground damage during towing

• 16 significant towing incidents at one hangar during 1999. (Average Year)

• Cost is $260K/year

• The organization conducted focus groups and event analysis to understand the contributing factors.



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Ground damage during towing: Prevention Measures

• Paint Centerlines, Clear zones, tail zones, etc.

• Standardize lights on hangar doors

• Modify work platforms

• Train personnel

• Audit performance and deliver feedback

• Total Cost to Fix: $52K



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ROI on Fixes for ground damage

1. COST $260K

2. COST TO FIX $52K

3. PROBABILITY OF SUCCESS 75% (.75)

4. RETURN ((.75x$260K)-$52) = $143K

5. RETURN ON INVESTMENT RATIO

($143K/$52K) = 2.75



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The Conference paper has 3 examples

• Ground Damage During Towing ROI = 2.75

• Damage in the Paint Hangar ROI = 5.5

• Technical Documentation ROI = .52



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Observations about ROI

• ROI calculation is not high enough priority.

• Organizations often don’t count the cost of error.

• Organizations don’t count error costs very well.

• Workers are not sensitive enough to the cost of error.



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Observations about ROI (Con’t.)

• When something breaks you fix it and don’t calculate it.

• When something is not safe you fix it and don’t

calculate it.

• When work conditions are not safe you fix it and don’t

calculate.

• You just don’t calculate it!



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Observations (Con’t.)

• Most interventions are seemingly intuitive and cost

justifiable.

• But the times are changing…

• ROI for HF interventions is in infancy.

• It does not have to be complicated to make the case!

• Numerous small justifications make a big point!



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Presentation Topics - Summary




Thank you

For these slides and more: www.hfskyway.com

Documents

Federal Aviation Administration William B. Johnson, Ph.D. Chief Scientific and Technical Advisor Human Factors in A/C Maintenance Systems [email protected]