Avionics News May 2019 - 17

The AEA's Safety Management System audit finding report tool provides
an online assessment tool for the documentation and investigation of
concerns raised by employees or from internal or external audits. Once
the conclusion has been found to be a finding, the SMS tool provides
the mechanism to develop and assign a corrective action.

have observed and they (1) do not support it by evidence,
and (2) they do not cite the specific standard, it is simply
not a finding. It may be an observation. It might even be a
discrepancy. It may be a concern. But until there is a conclusion, supported by evidence, that a process or product is
not in compliance with an established standard, it does not
meet the FAA's own definition of a finding.
What do you do when you get this information? It's simple;
you manage it.
The AEA's Safety Management System audit finding report
tool provides an online assessment tool for the documentation and investigation of concerns raised by employees or
from internal or external audits. Once the conclusion has been
found to be a finding, the SMS tool provides the mechanism
to develop and assign a corrective action.
The first step in the assessment is to thoroughly document
the concern: the when, where, what, and how the inconsistency was observed (Figure 1).
Once the concern is properly identified and documented,
the next step is to thoroughly investigate the "why" (Figure
2). The first step in the investigation phase is to capture
any and all additional information that may have led to the
inconsistent behavior. One significant step in the identification process is to identify the specific standard that was being
violated. At this point, once you have verified the discrepancy
and identified the standard that was not complied with, you
can conclude that a process or product was not in compliance
with an established standard and you can declare the discrepancy a finding.
Once identified as a finding, you want to know why it happened. To do this, perform a root cause analysis. In an article
by James J. Rooney and Lee N. Vanden Heuvel titled "Root
Cause Analysis For Beginners" published in the July 2004
Quality Progress magazine, they highlight the true benefit of
an RCA. According to the authors, "Simply stated, RCA is a
tool designed to help identify not only what and how an event
occurred, but also why it happened. Only when investigators
are able to determine why an event or failure occurred will

they be able to specify workable corrective measures that prevent future events of the type observed."
The article continues that a "Root cause analysis is a process designed for use in investigating and categorizing the
root causes of events with safety, health, environmental, quality, reliability and production impacts. The term 'event' is
used to generically identify occurrences that produce or have
the potential to produce these types of consequences."
A root cause tries to dive deeper into an event so that corrective actions don't simply address symptoms of the event
but rather the root of the event. Correcting a symptom corrects the effects of the event, while correcting the root cause
allows for a solution that corrects and ideally prevents the
event from recurring.
Following the determination of root cause, do a safety
analysis to determine how likely this event is to happen again,
and if unchecked, what the consequences are. Clearly, a likely
event that could lead to injury would need to be corrected
immediately, while an unlikely event with little or no consequence could be delayed.
And finally, the last step in the process is to develop a
corrective action plan (Figures 3 & 4) that involves determining what must be done to correct the discrepancy; who is
responsible for implementing the correction; identifying and
providing the resources; and finally, follow-up to make sure
the corrective action was implemented and has resulted in the
desired effect.
The key to continuous improvement is that every identified discrepancy, observation, concern, or recommendation raised by anyone, internal or external, authority or
customer, is evaluated to the same standard using the same
risk-assessment tools. Once identified and evaluated, a corrective action is determined that focuses on the root cause
of the event rather than an obvious symptom of the event.
This process, and the risk assessment tools contained in the
AEA Safety Management System program, will streamline and simplify the process while providing continuous
improvement for you and your business. q
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Avionics News May 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News May 2019