All aviation businesses require documented policies, procedures, and data. These are important to ensure that the employees know what is required, and how to undertake their tasks. The documented policies and procedures could be seen as the framework upon which the management runs the business. Generally the documents relate to safety related work and issues and are required by legislation to be developed and maintained so as to be contemporary and valid.
It is unfortunate that these documents are often viewed as a regulatory nuisance rather than a management tool, which assists to control the activities of the business. This attitude sometimes manifests itself in a document set which is always out of date or lacking in some other way. When this occurs, staff tend to disregard the instructions and opt for their own ‘work arounds’. In time, and often insidiously, a culture of non compliance with company policies and procedures develops, leading to general management control problems.
Aviation Regulators generally find fault with documents because of the risk of this chain of events occurring, which occasionally results in the worst possible scenario; a serious accident.
The best way to ensure that documents are kept up to date and distribution is controlled is by having a person responsible for the task. This person does not necessarily write the material, but coordinates and facilitates initial development activities, manual reviews, and amendments. The role should be scaled commensurate with the size and nature of the operation. A large international airline may have a number of people employed to undertake this, whereas, a small operator, may have a part time person or someone who combines this role with another.
Generally, the document control process itself should be documented. This will ensure that Management’s document control policy is clearly stated, aid staff transparency, and guide the work of the responsible people.
Sometimes, a simple data base is used to keep track of manual user feedback, amendment requests, and who is in possession of the documents. Excel (for example) is all most small and medium business require.
Some operators have documents stored electronically on a shared drive, compact disc or an intranet. This is very acceptable in the 21 st century and may reduce costs and increase efficiency. If these methods are used however, the same principles of amendment and control apply.
Whilst on the surface, the development, maintenance and control of documents may seem to be an unnecessary cost, in the long term it pays dividends because it assists management to maintaining control and promote a culture of compliance.
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