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Helping New Maintenance Hires Adapt to the Airport Operating Environment (2013)

Chapter: Chapter Seven - Lessons Learned

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Page 25
Suggested Citation:"Chapter Seven - Lessons Learned ." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Helping New Maintenance Hires Adapt to the Airport Operating Environment. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22505.
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Page 25
Page 26
Suggested Citation:"Chapter Seven - Lessons Learned ." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Helping New Maintenance Hires Adapt to the Airport Operating Environment. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22505.
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Page 26

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25 The general lack of GA airports-specific training material has resulted in their “going it alone,” so to speak. As the indus- try moves forward, it is helpful to address the training needs of GA airports by learning from those that have first-hand experience. This chapter seeks to highlight some of the les- sons that these airports have learned over the years. Managers’ comments, which have been grouped into common themes, are provided verbatim. One survey question (Q39) asked airport operators to describe what lessons they had learned from their hiring of new maintenance personnel. Most survey respondents pro- vided some sort of response, albeit many were brief. The com- ments still provide insight into how an airport organization can try to improve its own training efforts. One respondent addressed the key challenge of not having time available to conduct training: • Absolutely. Don’t be in a rush to get a new hire out on his or her own. Expediting the training process to have an additional source of manpower to perform routine func- tions can ultimately lead to poor workmanship and even worse, disastrous results. Take your time and ensure that when you let a new hire out on their own you can leave the airport every day with a sense of comfort in know- ing that the personnel you have working are competent, capable, thorough, and knowledgeable employees, ensur- ing a safe and sound environment for the traveling public. On the general topic of safety, and safety awareness, respon- dents noted: • Really need to stress public safety is #1. • Ensure they understand the importance of not entering a movement area without ATC permission. • We learned not to overlook the human factors in our train- ing. Once we began discussing situational awareness and managing stress, our accident rates went down. Related to chapter four, several respondents commented on assessment: • Constant monitoring results in better retention. • Need to follow up after initial training. • Better training = $$$$ savings and higher safety aware- ness overall. • Participate as much as you can, not only to evaluate train- ers, trainees and course material, but to build your own knowledge and understand better how members of staff work together. Related to chapter five and the type of training to provide, respondents said: • Nothing beats hands-on airfield driving! • A combination of classroom training and hands-on/ supervised OJT works best. • Keep it simple and entertaining! A number of comments give insight into the importance of assigning training responsibilities: • A key point here is that staffers must be people persons. • Dedicated well-trained mentors are critical in consistent training protocols. • Put them with a mentor for months. When the mentor thinks they are ready to be on their own, have them drive the airport director or assistant director around on an airport tour. Chapter five discusses documentation. One airport respon- dent advised: • Maintain detailed and complete training documentation. Throughout this report, and particularly in the section of chapter five that discusses the study findings on the amount of time given to tenant/contractor training, the following advice was provided: • Never assume a person truly knows the airport. Always ensure that airport staff interfaces with anyone that may be providing any kind of maintenance support to the airport. • All the training in the world doesn’t help if the contrac- tor switches staff around to cover other crews or employ- ees. Contractors have to understand that they cannot just rotate people in and out of airport positions without train- ing in advance. They are reluctant to designate an alter- nate worker and more so, pay them to come to the airport for training that they may or may not use. • Continually evaluate the activities of new contractors/ non-employees to ensure that the training they received chapter seven LESSONS LEARNED

26 is still adequate when their scope of work or activities changes. Don’t just assume that once they have been trained they are able to safely handle changes without additional training. One response from an air carrier airport manager, however, crystallizes the importance of helping new maintenance and other employees adapt to the organization. And although this particular airport clearly has resources available to it that GA airports do not, his message highlights the importance of estab- lishing a culture of safety and emphasizing the need for contin- uous learning. The individual’s comment is produced in whole: At our airport, we believe that properly training Maintenance staff is an absolute necessity in order to meet our top priority of a safe airport environment for not only employees, but all visitors to our airport. As such, one of our primary beliefs is in the impor- tance of continuous learning. Although this survey has a focus on initial training, we believe that continuous learning is the only way to stay alert and always keep safety at the forefront. As such, we have developed numerous continuous learning opportunities for staff. We have an annual Part 139, hands-on training class for all staff who access the airfield. We go above and beyond the requirements of the FAA, including topics such as sustainabil- ity, customer service, and many other safety topics that are not required, but help us maintain a situational awareness amongst our work force that we hope will prevent future incidents. We also offer a training class similar to our Part 139 Program for staff that does not have access to the airfield. Although not required, we believe it is critical to also make sure this group is vigilant, whether as a passenger in a vehicle or when just walking around the non-secure areas and facilities of our airport. We also strive to create a safety culture in which we learn continuously—not only from topics brought up in safety commit- tee meetings, but also from a thorough review by a team of all incidents (notice only, medicals, and lost-time incidents). It is imperative that any lessons learned through these incidents get communicated to the front line Maintenance staff through daily tool-box talks. We also conduct routine JSAs (or job safety analy- sis) on jobs or work tasks that we believe to be the riskiest and communicate those findings to staff. We have also implemented numerous systems that we believe help keep our staff and air- field safe. A few of these include the implementation of the SMS (safety management system), in which we find it very beneficial to have front line staff involved in safety risk analysis meetings with the goal of finding safer ways to operate and perform our everyday duties. We are also working closely with Eagle on the start-up of a new computerized SMS program for making our airport’s reporting and inspections paperless, accountable and more efficient. We also work closely with all of our trades and support unions in order to partner and ensure that our Maintenance staff are properly trained in the newest technology and has the tools that they need to perform the job in the safest and most efficient manner. Many of our local union halls offer such training, and in the areas that they are not offering learning opportunities, we work with equipment/tool manufacturers, consultants, and local experts to ensure adequate training. We have also found that real-life training (not just classroom or computer-based training) is the best way to prepare our staff. One example of this is the Snow Removal Drill that we have recently developed to provide a live exercise to all staff involved in snow removal operations. With typically 5–6 new temporary heavy equipment operators joining our staff every year, and the many new faces we had this past winter in our Operations Department, we knew that there was going to be a significant learning curve when it came to snow removal operations. We knew the potential mess we could have on our hands when the first winter storm came to our area. We had some of our expert Operations and Maintenance Managers and Supervisors put together a snow removal drill that really helped us all coordinate and learn from our mistakes (before we made them in real-time). We also worked closely with the ATCT to ensure proper coordination, and it was even a great learning opportunity for their newer staff members. This drill was such a great success that we will be continuing it on an annual basis. We also used the drill as an opportunity for many of the staff out- side the Maintenance and Operations Departments to shadow our front line staff and learn more about the jobs they do each and every day. One other critical factor that we believe is a must for training is working very closely with the tenants (mainly airlines) and the FAA. We have weekly construction meetings (including critical tenants, the FAA, and contractors/consultants) during con- struction season to coordinate airfield activities. We have monthly meetings between the Maintenance Department and all Airline Station Managers to discuss any issues and just give our custom- ers an opportunity to vent and discuss any concerns—and we ulti- mately learn from these issues and communicate solutions to staff. We also have meetings with the FAA periodically to make sure we are all on the same page and resolve any issues before they get out of hand. Although training at our airport starts on the first day an employee starts his/her job, we believe in the importance of con- tinuous learning. Every employee is involved in what we believe to be a continuous learning process until the day they leave or retire from the Airport Authority. We see the greatest success through a combination of an intensive initial training program, which involves all elements of training—classroom, computer- based, on-the-job, and mentor-student learning, as well as, and we believe most importantly, a continuous learning process with all of the previously mentioned elements until the employee’s last day at the airport.

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TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Synthesis 49: Helping New Maintenance Hires Adapt to the Airport Operating Environment highlights comprehensive safety and security training resources as well as successful practices for new maintenance hires at general aviation airports.

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