mbroderick's blog

Whose Job Is It?

Just finished reading an article written by Arron Karp published in the March/April issue of Avionics International: “Aviation Maintenance Technician Shortage Threatens Post Covid Rebound”. The article begins: “As demand for aviation roars back generally—and for passenger airline services in particular—demand for aviation maintenance technicians (AMTs) is rapidly rising. Now, a long-feared AMT shortage has arrived, according to experts and industry forecasts, and is not expected to get better anytime soon.”

Effective Communication in Maintenance

Wow! Great Human Factors term right? But “Effective Communication” is more than psychological hyperbole. Effective Communication is defined as the successful conveyance or exchange of information or news. Effective Communication is the single most important instrument in the symphony of aviation maintenance.  Because without it our maintenance activity becomes a cacophony of disorganized activity, with the creation of a safe product difficult at best, and impossible in most instances. Mike Broderick

Human Factors or Human Failure

When we discuss Human Factors in comparison to CRM, we distinguish one from the other as follows: “Human Factors is theoretical knowledge of psychology and CRM is the practical application of that knowledge”.  Thus, the concept of Human Factors, which is correctly characterized as a concept, is incorrectly characterized as the causative label conveniently hung on an incident / accident.   Because Human Failure is a tangible action and not an abstract term, Human Failure is the actual culprit, placing the blame where it belongs, with the human.