Avionics News October 2013 - 15

with or without a regulatory requirement and usually above
Conoco-Phillips Square. The FOD movement started and
the minimum quality standards established by the regulatory
grew from an emphasis on safety; but was it only safety?
authority.
One of the West Coast airlines at the time was budgeting
The purpose of 145.211 is safety – to assure “airworthimore than $1 million a year to repair FOD-damaged aircraft.
ness.” So it could be argued the requirement for a quality
If you read any of the aviation journals today, the airlines are
system is a safety requirement. But, as we all know, every
implementing process improvements to increase the efficiensuccessful business promotes their own quality standards.
cies of aircraft and personnel to save hundreds and thousands
So is quality a safety standard or just a best practice for sucof dollars, not just millions.
cessful businesses? Yes to both. There is a minimum safety
What about the quality and quantity of stands and lifts?
requirement but also a minimum standard all businesses must
A technician certainly needs to get to the job to perform it,
meet in order to be successful.
much less perform it correctly. While most people might
And in protecting both the employees as well as customconsider the quality and quantity of stands and lifts a safety
ers and visitors, we need to plan for emergencies. Recently,
issue, I suggest it is an efficiency issue, as well. We likely
I read a government report that said, “Winging it is not an
never look at the resources until we hit a critical stage. The
management system of SMS says to look
at it regularly to determine the adequacy
of the quantity and quality of the equipWhen you peel away the administrative
ment. There we go with that “safety”
layers of the SMS program, it is nothing
moniker again, but isn’t the quantity and
quality of equipment an efficiency thing
more than protecting our resources – our
first? Or is it a safety thing first? Or
maybe, they are both “firsts.”
s t a ff, o u r c u s t o m e r s a n d o u r b u s i n e s s .
The last few years have shown some
pretty rough economic times, and just
emergency plan.” We might have a mental plan for various
having an airplane in the hangar was an accomplishment.
emergencies, especially for emergencies we may have already
But as we start the climb back into better times, perhaps it’s
stumbled through. But the emphasis here is for planning for
time to look at the equipment around the shop. Do you have
the inevitable emergency. Sure, we hope that we will never
enough so the technicians can do their tasks without waiting?
need the benefit of the plan, but efficiency requires us to
Is it structurally sound so they can focus on their tasks rather
have a plan to deal with emergencies. In aviation, we might
than their security? Is it mobile enough so it will be used?
have routine industrial accidents that we should plan for, but
These same questions can be asked about nearly all of the
also the possibility of an aviation accident or incident. The
repair station resources, as well as safety equipment. Does
industrial safety standards require certain minimums, such as
the repair station have enough data and equipment? Are they
evacuations, injuries and fire management. Our participation
in good repair? And, most importantly, are they being used?
in aviation requires the protection of certain aviation resources
Remember, Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations
(and evidence) following an aviation incident. Our business
145.109 requires a repair station to have the equipment, tools
plan should include an efficiency plan to address what to do
and materials, as well as the documents and data necessary, to
for injuries and illnesses; fires and evacuations; and finally, the
perform maintenance in accordance with Part 43.
complete isolation of important aviation information.
The next resource any business needs to protect is their
Ultimately, it is nearly impossible to completely separate
customer resources. It’s good business to protect the custhe minimum safety standards from the industry best practictomer. It’s bad business to take risks with the customer or
es. During the development of the AEA management system
customer’s property. Take a moment and think about the ways
for safety, we focused on capturing the industry best practices
you protect the customer and/or the customer’s property.
that demonstrated compliance with the recommendations of
Section 145.211 requires a repair station to establish and
the International Civil Aviation Organization rather than the
maintain a quality control system that ensures the airworadministratively burdensome processes presented by the varithiness of the articles on which the repair station performs
ous aviation authorities. In the end, I believe we captured the
maintenance. But any good business has already established
best of both worlds. For more information on the AEA’s SMS
certain quality goals or objectives, as well as the management
program, visit www.aea.net/sms. 
processes to ensure the customers receive a quality product –
avionics news

•

october

2013

http://www.aea.net/sms

Avionics News October 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News October 2013