Frequently Asked Questions

Why bother with this training as it is expensive and I’ve got a good crew?

Good question and one that usually is followed with the statement: “I’ve been working on aircraft for  ___ years and haven’t killed anyone yet.”  Today it is recognized that over 80% of all aviation accidents are caused not by equipment failure but human error.  As aircraft become more reliable, this number continues to climb higher.  Most errors in aviation are blamed on the pilots but many accidents reveal that maintenance set the pilot up (or gave him/her the opportunity) to make the error.  Today it is now recognized that company management also often plays a role in causing the error to occur. 

I think we can all agree that no one intends to make an error.  Yet they continue to happen and often to the best workers.  The answer as to why is very simple.  NO ONE HAS BEEN TAUGHT ON HOW TO AVOID THE ERROR THEY DON’T INTEND TO MAKE.  Human Factors training does just that.

But it’s just plain old common sense.

Human Factors training has nothing to do with common sense.  For Example. EVERYONE knows that you must always tighten up a fuel line before the aircraft is released for service but in my years of accident investigation I saw many a loose fuel line and the “guilty party” who had left it loose had lots of common sense.  What he didn’t have was knowledge of what can occur to cause him to leave that line loose. 

It’s common sense to not drive and sleep and yet many of us have had the head snap of a microsleep and if lucky survived to tell about it without killing anyone.  Being able to recognize the effects of fatigue BEFORE it results in the headsnap and worse, is part of human factors training. If fact common sense should tell you that this training could help prevent human errors and accidents.  Train the person on how to avoid the error they never intend to make.

My guys won’t accept all that psyco-babble so it would be a waste of time and money for us.

Everyone tends to fear the unknown and go with what’s got him or her this far.  Human factors training, done right, is not psyco-babble unless the training was designed and presented by a psychologist.  There are some courses out there developed that way.  Human Performance in Maintenance (HPIM) was developed by an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer in 1993, with the assistance of the aviation industry.  It is NOT psyco-babble but provides concrete solutions to avoiding human error.  We are so sure that the persons attending will find it useful that we put our money where our mouth is and offer this guarantee: 

If at the end of the two- day workshop, any participant genuinely feels that it was a waste of he/her time, we will not charge for that person; minus only expenses.  (no free donuts)

After having trained over8,000 persons, we have yet to meet this person.

Can’t you cut it down to just one day?

Two days of lost productivity is difficult for any company and often ends up costing more then the workshop.  To be truly effective, the participants need to go home and sleep on it.  The difference in attitude from day one to two is very noticeable and helps ensure that the training will accomplish it’s objective or goal which is: To examine the human role of maintenance in the chain of events that cause an aviation occurrence and develop ways to prevent or lessen the seriousness of the occurrence.   Two days is the optimal time to provide the training required with the least possible disruption of a company.  The training can be done on weekends or spaced over a short period of time but the optimal is two consecutive days.

OK, but why use two facilitators when one would be cheaper and still provide the training?

Many companies who have adopted and use HPIM have, with the severe cutbacks required to survive, begun to use one facilitator instead of the two as the workshop was developed for.  The workshops are still useful but the remaining facilitators have informed me that it is not the same and they are able to present less material in the time allocated.  I provided ten reasons why two facilitators should be used but the main one is: Human factors training, in order to be successful, calls for a “leap of faith” between the facilitator and the participant.  By that I mean, the participant must feel that what the facilitator is saying will work for him and he will make the effort to apply some of what he learned.  In order for this to happen, the participant must relate to the facilitator.  With two facilitators you have doubled your chances that this will occur.  The change of voice and style also helps the participants to absorb more.  In fact we have had many participants say that this was the first class they have ever attended that they didn’t go to sleep in.

Can, or should, only maintenance personnel attend?

No, no and no.  Any human can attend and will benefit from the training.  The training provides humans with knowledge on how to avoid making a mistake.  We once trained a company’s office staff of 23 females, who had never touched a wrench in their lives, HPIM.  In the evaluations we were given a class average for usefulness of over 90% and one person wrote that we had taught her how to deal with her mother-in-law.  This workshop is especially valuable for the company management and we have had many companies send their pilots to it.  We have had nurses, pulp mill workers, restaurant managers, submarine workers and police, to name a few who have attended. No one has said it was a waste of time.

 So what’s in this workshop?

The workshop starts with a motivator or why should we be here followed by the introduction of a model they will use throughout to assist them in avoiding making a human error in any profession. 

They then do a behavioral analysis using maintenance scenarios that enable them to see themselves and others around them.  They learn about assertiveness in this module.  The workshop goes on to explore the “dirty dozen” causes of a maintenance or human error and ways to avoid making the error or catching it before it becomes an accident.  We do this with “Safety Nets.”  The safety nets are ways to catch the errors that are made.  For example: The independent inspection after certain work is completed.  If you are not familiar with the “dirty dozen” please click here to view them there.  There are many group exercises in the two days and four case studies that enable the groups to practice what they have learned.  The workshop concludes with a wrap up where the participant sets goals for him/herself in order to work safer.  

Then what or how do we maintain the awareness the workshop develops?

The workshop was actually developed with three parts to be provided over the course of three years.  After that, a series of training videos will maintain the awareness.  A series of posters has also been developed to assist in maintaining that important level of awareness.  These posters can be obtained from  the Maintenance And Ramp Safety Society (MARSS) at www.marss.org. 

Any other questions?

If you have any other questions, you can contact me through the guestbook.  Email me direct at dupontg@system-safety.com or phone 604 526-3993. (remember the time zone ((if any)) difference.)

 I hope this is a help to you and we are very serious about assisting you to work safer.  To this end, we are prepared to provide any company with a free presentation (costs only) on how to get the most value out of HF training or in other words, implementing a Safety Management System.