Fatigue Risk Management in Aviation Maintenance - Term Paper Example

Fatigue Risk Management in the Aviation Maintenance Abstract Aviation maintenance organizations are characterized by long working hours and often night shifts. These characteristics can produce substantial levels of employee fatigue. Fatigue Risks Management Systems (FRMS) are used to manage fatigue in the various departments in aviation industry. However, there are no comprehensive methods of fatigue risks management in maintenance departments. The objectives of fatigue management in aviation maintenance environment are to reduce fatigue to acceptable levels, to reduce or to capture fatigue-associated errors & to minimize the harm or injuries caused by errors related to fatigue. Several measures can be used to obtain these three targets or objectives. Some of these measures are already in application within aviation industry while other measures may be applied in future. Introduction Personnel in aviation maintenance department are faced with a particular risk of fatigue as a result of long and uncontrolled duty times, night shift works and disruption of their sleep that may result from their working conditions. Lately, international bodies, investigation agencies, national aviation authorities, maintenance and repair organizations and airlines have directed their attention to aviation maintenance management (Federal Aviation Administration, 2010). This paper highlights the present state of management of fatigue risk and examines the emerging techniques to the management of fatigue risk. It also discusses the best practices that should be employed in managing fatigue risk. Principles of Fatigue Risk Management Several principles are outlined by various risk management literature. These principles include: A fatigue risk management system demands a systematic approach, involving company policies, incident reporting and analyzing customs, proactive risk evaluation and other features of a general safety management system. An effective fatigue management requires cooperation between the employers and the employees since both of them can contribute valuably to solutions. In all cases the appropriate objective of fatigue risk management is to reduce the fatigue since it is impossible to have zero fatigue (Federal Aviation Administration, 2010) Features of Maintenance Work That Can Assist in Management of Fatigue Maintenance personnel, have to endure significant fatigue risks. However, there are several characteristics of aircraft maintenance that provide chances of reducing the hazards created by fatigue. In the first place, maintenance work should be internally rather than externally paced. Maintenance should not be performed under pressure. The maintainer conscious should be able to stop a task and consider aiming for accuracy rather than speed. Where possible, methods of performance of a maintenance task should be modified. For example, tasks cards can be modify and secondary inspections and operational functional checks introduced to serve as errors capturing barriers. Where maintenance organization has the flexibility to choose when certain maintenance tasks can be performed, it is necessary to schedule the most risk susceptible tasks at a time when employees are less likely to be fatigued. Finally, maintainers should rarely be required to travel across different time zones performing their duties. This assists in preventing aircraft lag and circadian rhythm disruptions, which are key considerations for flight, crew FRMS. (Federal Aviation Administration, 2010) Employer and Employee Responsibilities in Fatigue Risk Management Effective fatigue management requires partnerships with shared responsibility between the employers and the employees. Fatigue does not only originate from the workplace but also from the personal life of the employee. Personal factors that can lead to fatigue include social and family commitments, medical conditions and second jobs. Therefore, it is the employee’s responsibility to ensure that they have enough rest fit for duty before assuming for work. The employer has an obligation to ensure that working hours are reasonable, availability of rest break periods and adequate staffing. However, the International Federation of Airworthiness asserts that the responsibility to control working hours is not solely the mandate of the employer. Employees have a responsibility to take advantage of opportunities & facilities for rest sessions provided. Further, it is also an employee’s responsibility to plan and use the rest periods appropriately in order to reduce incurring fatigue. Objectives of the Fatigue Risk Management There are three main objectives or goals of fatigue risk management in the aviation maintenance. Different controls are required in order to meet the objectives. According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (2003); Reason & Hobbs (2003), there should be a distinction between controls that are aimed at hazard prevention and controls aimed at risk prevention. Objective 1-to Reduce Fatigue This is the first objective. Fatigue countermeasures should aim at reducing the level of fatigue experienced by personnel. This objective can be realized through a number of ways as outlined below. Hours of service limit: in the United States, hours of service (HOS) currently applying is Title 14 of the Code of the Federal Regulations part 21. It requires that a maintainer is given a break of a minimum of 24 hours in any seven sequential days or its equivalent within a calendar month. Different Civil Aviation Authorities have different limits on hours of service. For example, in New Zealand, a maintenance personnel is required to have had at least 8 hours off duty in the previous 24 hours and a at least 4 periods of 24 hour successive breaks in the previous month (Federal Aviation Administration 2010). Other civil aviation authorities such as European Aviation Safety Agency and the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority don’t specify HOS limitations for the maintenance of their workers. However, UK CAA recommends five key items presented by Professor Simon Forkland (2003).The first guideline states that there should be a limit of 12 hours of shift period. The second guideline states that no shift should be extended by more than 13 hours of overtime. The third guideline requires that there is at least 11 hours break between shifts. The fifth guideline states that there should be a break from work every four hours. Lastly, a month notice of works schedules should be provided. There are also hours of service policies by non-governmental agencies and authorities. The International Federation of Airworthiness has issued non-bidding proposals for maintenance duty periods. These recommendations specify that: No scheduled shifts should exceed twelve hours, no shift should go for more than 16 hours, a scheduled duty in a seven-days period should not be more than 72 hours, and finally, if there are scheduled 12-hour night shifts, they should not exceed four of such shifts in any 7 days period. In absence of any regulatory authority, airlines and maintenance introduce their own HOS limits, which should also meet the objective of reducing personnel fatigue (Jauregui & Hosey, 2007). Scientific scheduling models: lately, there has been incorporation of software modeling systems into fatigue risks management systems. The software models are more advantageous over hours of service limits because they can account for circadian variation and attentiveness, and sleep obtained to produce an approximation of fatigue level that may be caused by a certain shift pattern. When they are used as scheduling tools, software models produce greater flexibility that HOS limits. The software models can also be implemented together with HOS limits. Common software models used include Circadian Alertness Stimulator(CAS) and Fatigue Audit InterDyne(FAID), Fatigue Avoidance Scheduling Tool(FAST) and Sleep Activity Fatigue & Task Effectiveness (SAFTE). Software modeling must be used with caution, bearing in mind the competences limitations of computerized models (International Civil Aviation Organization, 2003). Training and education: an Organization can reduce fatigue arising from individual lifestyle factors by providing educational materials to the employees. Examples of such educational materials are computer fatigue countermeasures workshops, newsletter, posters, and video materials. The topic on fatigue awareness should be covered in training employees on human factors. Training should be done not only to aviation maintenance technicians but also to managers, maintenance planners, and supervisors. It is important that they have knowledge for them to schedule tasks effectively in order to reduce fatigue. The following personnel of maintenance should receive human factors training according to the Acceptable Means of Compliance: Managers, supervisors, ground equipment operators, store & purchasing department’s staff, specialized services staff, quality control staff, technical support personnel like engineers, planners, and technical record staff, certifying staff, mechanics and technicians. Families of employees should also be furnished with information on fatigue issues and what they can do to assist their shift worker members to obtain sleep (International Civil Aviation Organization, 2003). Napping strategies: when taken before the commencement of a night shift-work, naps can be an effective preventative measure. Naps can also serve as a means of improving attentiveness during a night shift. Controlled studies show that even a short sleep episode can improve performance. Nap as a measure to counter fatigue may face opposition from fro airline and controllers. Conversely, informal napping arrangements are common during maintenance night shifts as a measure to counter extreme fatigue. There are some airlines that provide beds to allow maintenance workers take a nap after ending their shift before driving home. Although napping can be an effective fatigue countermeasure, sleep periods lasting for more than 40 minutes may produce a feeling of tiredness and disorientation that may last for some time after wakening (Kryger, Roth & Dement, 2005). Medical treatment: sometimes fatigue will be caused by a medical condition such as sleep apnea and insomnia (Kryger, Roth & Dement, 2005). It is, therefore, important to address the medical issues in order to solve the problem. An effective FRMS should incorporate measures to ascertain that the employees receive proper medical care. Unplanned absences. Fatigue risk management systems can be designed to allow employees to take leaves without giving a notice if they feel their fatigue level would adversely affect the performance of their duties. Organizations should evaluate the potential disruption that can be caused by an employee taking an unplanned absence and the potential harm that could occur when an employee performance of duty is affected by fatigue (Cook, 2008) Objective 2-To Reduce/Capture Fatigue Associated Errors. Fatigue can only be reduced, but it cannot be fully eliminated. It is, therefore, essential to have measures in place to reduce the chances of occurrence of errors among fatigued employees. The key issue here is to manage risk when a fatigued maintainer is working. This risk can be managed through two approaches as follows: Measures directed towards individuals: this section includes several approaches that an employee can use to identify their fatigue levels and seek temporary relief. Self-assessment: an employee should assess himself to detect his level of fatigue. An employee can use several quick assessment guides in making this judgment. However, these guides should be used cautiously in order to avoid wrong judgment on self-fatigue level. There are subjective fatigue ratings, which are used in research studies that can also be used in aviation maintenance environments. A good example is the Stanford Sleepiness Scale. Fatigue detection technologies: several technologies can detect dangerous fatigue levels at the beginning of a shift or in the course of performance of a task. These technologies include psychomotor performance tests that are able to indicate a maintainer’s vigilance performance when tired. These tests can be installed on smartphones and other handheld devices (Thorne et al., 2005). Breaks: taking some, few minutes in exercise such as a short walk can improve attentiveness and reverse the effect of fatigue temporarily on some psychomotor tasks. A maintenance worker feeling extremely fatigued should call time out, or engage in a physical task such as walking around the room. Breaks are just temporary remedies to fatigue, and they cannot be used to manage fatigue in the long run. (Bonnet, 2005) Workplace environment: some features of the work environment can either amplify or suppress effects of fatigue. In some situations modifications to the work environment can assist the maintenance workers to cope with fatigue. Bright light increases alertness and minimizes errors among fatigued workers while activities done in a dark environment are challenging to tired employees. Proper ventilation of working premises also provides temporary relief from fatigue. An appropriate posture should also be adopted. Fatigue is more rampant in activities that are performed while seated than in activities performed while walking or standing. (Bonnet, 2005). Stimulants: such as caffeine when used with moderation can be a valuable part of fatigue risks management strategies in the maintenance environment. Caffeine last for about five hour in the body and therefore maintainers should be careful when taking caffeine during the hours leading to sleep. When caffeine is used for reducing fatigue, it is recommended that maintainers avoid routine consumption of caffeinated drinks because caffeine is less effective caffeine addicts. There is alertness enhancing medications such as modafinil, which could be adopted for use in the environment of maintenance in the aviation industry as fatigue countermeasures. Alertness enhancing prescription medicines are currently not in use in aviation industry and should only be taken under medical consultation (Bonnet, 2005). Measures Directed Toward At-Risk Tasks: it is possible to cut the link between fatigue and error by modifying the aspects of the activity assigned to a worker. This task-based approach is based on the concept that maintenance activities vary from those tasks that are highly vulnerable to fatigue to those, which are less vulnerable. The approach, therefore, seeks to determine the possibility that errors will occur. There are two complimentary strategies that can be used under task-based approaches to reduce the harm: changing the time when an activity is done and changing how the task is performed. These two strategies can be achieved by the following means: Task scheduling interventions: careful scheduling can help reduce fatigue susceptibility. Tasks that are most susceptible to errors related to fatigue include monotonous or boring tasks, familiar tasks, tasks that demand continuous concentration, tasks performed in darkened environment, inspection tasks, tasks that are prospective memory reliant and tasks where inappropriate performance is not immediately noticeable. These tasks should be avoided during times when the effects of fatigue are known to occur. (Reason & Hobb, 2013) Fatigue proofing of tasks procedure: it might be possible to modify acitivity procedures in order to minimize susceptibility of a task to errors related to fatigue or to detect presence of an error. Fatigue proofing strategies includes task rotation, close supervision, checklists, communication at shift handover and support for new employees by experienced employees. Other strategies that can also be used include breakdown of lengthy and repetitive tasks into smaller ones, with further breaks in between, and making the necessary additional checks on works performed on night shifts. Specific countermeasures are required to detect errors in tasks that are known to be susceptible to fatigue or those task that have a history of recurrent errors. These countermeasures include operational and inspection checks, independent inspections, and formal self-check. For example, post maintenance functional inspections after maintenance on critical flight systems and components would be very important in a case where a fatigued worker did the maintenance (Reason & Hobb, 2013). Objective 3. Minimizing the Harms Caused by Errors Related to Fatigue The focus is to reduce the severity of consequences of an error. In maintenance environment, harm minimization entails keeping the most safety crucial tasks away from the most fatigued workers. For instance, it would be prudent when preparing work schedules to avoid allocating work on flight control systems to workers who are on their low point of circadian and instead allocate them less crucial tasks. This approach reduces the probable consequence of that error but does not prevent the maintainer from making the error related to fatigue on the other tasks they are allocated. If there is a task that requires disassembly phase, followed by an assembly phase, it will be prudent to schedule the disassembling at the time when fatigue is maximum and the assembly when fatigue is likely to be less. This scheduling assumes that an error is likely not to be more serious if it occurs during assembly than an error that occurs during disassembly (Reason & Hobb, 2013). Harm minimizing approach differs from task-based approaches in the sense that the criticality of the activity is considered whereas the task-based approaches consider the task susceptibility to fatigue. Harm minimization approach might require formal progressive policy restrictions on each worker’s responsibilities. In this respect, individuals should be kept off from critical tasks as their levels of fatigue rises. The International Federation of Airworthiness recommends the progressive restriction approach. The federation advises that accreditation and inspections authorities of maintenance employees should be restricted after being on duty for more than 12 hours. Care should be taken when a progressive restriction approach is used to avoid a situation where removal of responsibilities from employees judged risky of tiredness could increase the workloads of the other employees as this would expose them to high levels of fatigue and the objective of progressive restriction approach would not be achieved (Jauregui & Hosey, 2005). Unlike other sections of the industry of transport, maintenance organizations and departments can easily reschedule tasks, they may be able to evaluate individuals’ level of fatigue when allocating jobs, and they can revise job procedures to mitigate the effect of fatigue. Regardless of the technique to fatigue risk management adopted, cooperation from all organizational levels is paramount. The top management has a responsibility to set clear policies on fatigue. Middle level managers & supervisors have a responsibility to see that fatigue risk management policy is applied in routine operations. Lastly, individual maintenance inspectors and technician are ultimately responsible for the work quality and hence must have comprehensive knowledge of fatigue, its effects, and how to deal with it at the workplace. References Bonnet, M. (2005). Acute sleep deprivation. In M.Kryger, T. Roth, & W. Dement (Eds.), Principles and practice of sleep medicine (pp. 51-66). Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier International Civil Aviation Organization. (2003). Human factors guidelines for aircraft maintenance manual (ICAO Document 9824). Montreal, Canada Federal Aviation Administration. (2010). Fatigue risk management systems for aviation safety. Advisory Circular 120-103. Washington DC. Folkard, S. (2003). Work hours of aircraft maintenance personnel (UK CAA Paper 2002/06). West Sussex, UK: Research Management Department, Safety Regulation Group Jauregui, F., & Hosey, P. (2007). Guidance information for the establishment of duty time limitations and rest periods. West Sussex, UK: International Federation of Airworthiness. Jauregui, F., & Hosey, P. (2005). Extended work hours, maintenance. West Sussex, UK: International Federation of Airworthiness. Kryger, M.H., Roth, T., & Dement, W.C. (Eds.) (2005).Principles and practice of sleep medicine. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Reason, J., & Hobbs, A. (2003) Managing maintenance error: A practical guide. Ashgate: Aldershot. Thorne, D.R., Johnson, D.E., Redmond, D.P., Sing, H.C., Belenky G., & Shapiro, J. (2005). The Walter Reed palm-held psychomotor vigilance test. Behavior Research Methods. 37, 111-118. Read More