Improving Internal Communication with Pilots and Air Traffic Controllers - Report Example

Aim of the Activities To identify the type of failure To explain the reasons for the assignment of the problem To relate this problem to Aviation with an example To find ways to improve the performance in these incidents Type of Failure When many balls are thrown at a member from different directions at the same time, it will result in confusion and eventually lead to problem and the member will be unable to handle all the balls. The same case might exist in a bus/train/bank counter when it is crowded with people at the same time. In theoretical terms of operations research, this type of failure occurs due to sequencing and assignment related problems. Queuing and waiting line theory can also be related to the failure. When the problem involves the allocation of n different facilities to n different tasks, it is often termed as an assignment problem. In our case, it is the allocation of n balls to n persons resulting in confusion. Improper Planning is the primary key here and the assignment problem also encompasses an important sub-class of so-called shortest- (or longest-) route models. The type of failure is assignment related with hints from queuing and waiting line with improper planning and bad internal communication as the base. The Short-term impact with failure of internal communication system include: Spread of misinformation, Erosion of employee trust and confidence, Conflicts between employees and management, Misinformed employees can make wrong decisions, internal brand image suffers. Long-term impact: Dissatisfaction among employees leads to higher attrition, Lack of coherent and shared vision, Low employee morale results in lower productivity, Impact on company's stocks, organization’s external brand value suffers. Reason Improper planning is the major reason for this type of failure; Waiting lines are the most frequently encountered problems in everyday life, queue at a cafeteria, library, bank, etc. Common to all of these cases are the arrivals of objects requiring service and the attendant delays when the service mechanism is busy. In the case of balls, a waiting line is formed when the first ball is dropped and waiting lines cannot be eliminated completely, but suitable techniques can be used to reduce the waiting time of an object in the system, a long waiting line may result in loss of many balls (customers) to a member (organization). Information Overload is the next possible reason for the failure. Consider a server being fed with data on a daily basis. When information or data is fed in the server after reaching its full capacity, it will eventually crash resulting in loss of data and manipulations. This will be a serious issue in a system which relies on Intranet for the entire operations like a university. All processes will come to a stop until the problem is fixed. In our case, the member is exposed to a large number of balls, that he is unable to handle the input and eventually looses the balls. When the balls come from different directions towards a single member, there will be no anticipation and attention will be diverted which forms a reason for the failure. When there is a diversion of attention, the member will be stranded in confusion and loose all the balls coming towards him. When this type of failure constantly occurs, the member will be used to encounter these problems and this will become a habit in the memory of the member. The member will suffer poor memory loss about the direction of balls and even loose a ball coming straight forward towards him as the member’s memory thinks that the balls cannot be caught. The students cannot catch all the balls as they are unsure about the arrival of the balls and the catching is highly probabilistic in nature and this occurs due to bad communication system. If communication between the sender and receiver are good, then the balls would have been caught, so improper or bad internal communication is one of the possible reasons for the failure. Relation to Aviation The students catching the balls can be related to the Air traffic controllers. When there are a number of flights coming from different directions, the air traffic controllers will be left stranded. This type of problem will result in dangerous and sometimes even in loss of life. The flights are well planned for the departure and arrival but there are instances, wherein the schedule changes due to bad weather conditions, technical problems etc. and the air traffic controllers will face such circumstances of landing many planes at once in the airport very often. Recently two planes crashed in mid sky due to this problem as the planes were unable to land, they were remaining in the sky, when another plane came and crashed. Another failure is because of poor internal communication between the pilots and air traffic controllers. Air traffic is similar to the road traffic in many ways. The relationship between ball scenario and airplanes is explained as follows: Flight No. NY - CA Departure Arrival 1 7.00 AM 8.00 AM 2 8.00 AM 9.00 AM 3 1.00 PM 2.00 PM 4 6.00 PM 7.00 PM Flight No. CA - NY Departure Arrival 101 8.00 AM 9.00 AM 102 9.00 AM 10.00 AM 103 12.00 Noon 1.00 PM 104 5.00 PM 6.00 PM The schedule is well framed and there is no problem at both the places until some alterations occur. Assuming that both the airports are able to hold only one plane at a time, the flight 1 reaches California 10 minutes early at 7.50 A.M. Now, here arises the problem as there is already a flight 101 at California. Now the plane 1 is unable to land at California. There must be proper communication between the pilot of the plane and the air traffic controller or else it will lead to crash. Scheduling is the big aspect and the air traffic controller must ensure that the plane stays in the air before the flight 101 takes off. In our case, the ball may be related to an airplane. The case discussed above is like a student is having a ball in his hand and another ball is coming towards him and the problem arises. Similarly, if many balls (flight) come towards the student (airport), it will be a big problem. In this case, Queuing and waiting line models can be applied to solve the problem of assignment. This is how the ball scenario is related to air planes and the use of operation research and internal communication in solving such problems are explained. Example An aircraft crash occurred due to the above discussed failure with pilots and air traffic controllers playing the major part in the incident. The incident took place in Teterboro due to heavy traffic of airplanes on December 22, 2005. Being Christmas season, the flight traffic was heavy in Teterboro and the crash occurred in the early morning. There was heavy traffic in the airport and many planes were arriving and departing. The plane landed on the runaway and crashed with another airplane on the same run away. The reasons for the crash as stated by federal Aviation reports are because of the poor communication between the air traffic controller and the pilot and heavy traffic. The air traffic controller misinformed the pilot due to heavy traffic and the crash occurred. This incident is a real time example of our case where in many planes entered the airport at the same time and the airport authorities were not able to handle the situation and eventually resulted in the crash leading to loss of life. Ways to Improve The Flight assignment problem can be solved by using operation research techniques like queuing and waiting line models, Queuing theory is based on mathematical theories and deals with the problems arising due to flow of (flights) customers towards the (airport) service facility. The waiting line models help the management in balancing between the cost associated with waiting and the cost of providing service. Thus, queuing or waiting line models can be applied in such situations where decisions have to be taken to minimize the waiting time with minimum investment cost. It is a suitable model used to represent a service oriented problem, where customers arrive randomly to receive some service, the service time being also a random variable. Improving internal communication: The various approaches to improve internal communication include: Formal channels, Intranets, E-Mail, Newsletter, periodic Presentations by the Boss, open House or Town Hall Sessions and even Good old Team Briefings or Staff Magazines, Notices and Posters. All can form part of the mix of internal communications. After analyzing the different forms of communication, a mixture of meetings and intranet can be used for effective internal communication. The important information can be deliberated to the respective head of the departments by convening a meeting. The information about the meeting like notice, agenda, and minutes can be conveyed through wireless Intranet connecting the pilot and the air traffic controller. For example: If a meeting has to take place on 12th October, then the computer administrator can use the intranet and circulate the notice and agenda of the meeting to the respective pilots and get their acknowledgment. Than as per scheduled, the meeting can be convened and the information can be shared between the pilot and the air traffic controller. After the meeting, the respective air traffic controller can convey the message to the pilot orally. Reference: P.C.Tripathi, P.N Reddy “PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT”, Third Edition, the McGraw-Hill companies. Dr.C.B.Guptha, “BUSINESS MANAGEMENT”, 5th Edition, Sultan Chand & Sons. Harold Koontz, Heninz weitirich, “ESSENTIALS OF MARKETING”, 5th Edition, the McGraw-Hill companies. Heninz weitirich, “MANAGEMENT”, 11th Edition, the McGraw-Hill companies. Bansal, Project management, 4th edition, Pearson education Read More