News

BAZL/FOCA – EU Regulation No. 376/2014 – directive workshop

The Federal Office of Civil Aviation provides detailed information about EU Regulation No. 376/2014 and discusses aspects of the implementation of this legislation with organisations and with the industry.

Deadline

Based on current information, this directive will enter into force in Switzerland on 01.02.2016, i.e. two-and-a-half months after the end of the transition period in the EU. With the introduction of EU Regulation No. 376/2014 the mandatory and voluntary notification system SWANS (Swiss Aviation Notification System) will be replaced.

Online platform

It is currently unclear whether the EU will be able to productively roll out its announced cross-border online recording platform. If it is unable to do so, Switzerland is considering setting up its own recording system following the Austrian or Italian model.

Data interface

According to FOCA, the E5X interface is largely completed, pending "some minor problems".

Inconsistencies – ECCAIRS taxonomy and existing SMS implementations

This EU-compliant classification system will – in our opinion – require a very large number of adjustments to be made.

In principle, each organisation can retain its existing SMS and continue to use it as before.

In practice, however, there will then be no congruence between the messages to the "competent authority" and the internal messages – the data fields are simply not compatible with each other or the selection options are different.

Particularly in view of the fact that the messages, irrespective of risk minimisation measures (actions/mitigation) or subsequent investigations, are also conveyed to the competent national authority having been subject to several updates, this situation does not ensure transparency.

Duplication requirement for existing SMS implementations

If existing SMS implementations, such as for example eControl aviation, do not provide the ECCAIRS taxonomy for the formulation of messages, Regulation No. 376/2014 requires duplication and synchronisation. Registration periods must also be monitored and indicators for the "official" occurrences must be recreated.

FOCA would like mandatory data fields for existing SMS implementations (24 of 263)

In order to avoid inconsistencies and make it easier to exchange information, FOCA expects that existing SMS implementations will in future use at least the 24 mandatory data fields.

And the other 239 data fields?

No statement has yet been made about the remaining 239 data fields, with which the occurrences can be very well classified.

The statistical significance of national ECCAIRS databases and thus also the European central repository ECR essentially depends on whether specific data fields can be evaluated for the individual occurrence categories (value range 430). In our opinion it is probable that the EU will make efforts in this regard in future.

In short, each occurrence management in the EU will have to follow the ECCAIRS taxonomy standard with regard to safety parameters.

Checks, violations and no penalties

Process management instead of penalisation

Penalisation of violations is only applicable for deviations due to avoidable personal misconduct.

But effectively avoiding these deviations cannot be aimed at individuals but must focus on process chains that have not been implemented correctly and where, during their implementation, violations against regulations should be monitored.

Violation management is compliance management

Compliance management ensures and verifies that the organisation is complying with regulations. This compliance is subsequently checked with process audits at appropriate time intervals.

Violation management is a useful addition to compliance and audit management. As a permanent or strategically aligned corrective, violation management makes a significant contribution to the ongoing maintenance of compliance levels.

Violation management and conflicting objectives

Violation management proves particularly useful, if opposing objectives of operational procedures – often of productivity and safety, quality or other regulations are identified. Resolving these conflicting objectives is both painful and necessary.

Penalties are a burden on the work climate

A penalising violation management can only work, if employees with regulatory responsibility are put under the direct control of the management and are free from operational constraints in their activities. An employee with regulatory responsibility cannot, as the representative for an violation, impose penalties on colleagues with whom he will be collaborating in another activity.

There is general acceptance of unpunished violations and violations which are not of a personal nature, because the focus is on the performance of the process rather than that of the individual. Good violation awareness recognises a documented violation as an important element for joint improvement in the level of safety or quality.

Process deviation and business unit instead of identification number

The classification of violations is a necessary prerequisite for systematic analysis. Instead of the obligatory staff or identification number for punitive violation management, business units, equipment and local information for identification of hotspots is substantially more useful for process-orientated violation management.

Cooperation with works and staff councils

Cooperation with operational co-management bodies is often a factor critical to the success of violation management. Violation management aligned with a performance check is - legitimately – only brought into line with the ideas of the works and staff councils with difficulty. Violation management that on the other hand addresses conflicting objectives and makes sure that inconsistencies arising from maximum performance and compliance with procedures are not dealt with on the backs of the employees doing the work, can be sure of the support of all involved.

NEW REPORTS - Controlled documents incl. Read &Sign

From version 3.60 onwards, the TQMS (Training and Qualification Management System) software module has at its disposal additional reports for the control of documents. The term document control encompasses the versioning and distribution of documents, the notification of amendments by the user and all associated control and verification functions.

Prior to this, eControl TQMS already had a considerable number of functions at its disposal in this regard. The new reports enable the issue of who has been informed of which document and when, and how they have been informed to be addressed easily and reliably as well as that of who should be, but has not yet been informed. According to the philosophy of the decentralised document and staff management, all control reports can be used independently by each hierarchical superior. Each superior therefore only sees the Read & Sign activities of “his” own employees.

Controlled documents report

This report gives an overview of all controlled documents.

Which documents are controlled in connection with which processes?

Which amendments show the latest document version?

Which older document versions were controlled previously and how have they been amended?

Controlled documents and persons report

This report brings together the controlled documents and the persons who should be informed of these documents.

Which persons should be informed of which documents in the currently valid document version?

In which context were these persons informed of the document version?

Which persons have not yet responded to the Read & Sign requirements by acknowledging receipt of information?

Which document is familiar to which persons in the current version?

Controlled documents verification report

With eControl, verification of which employee has been informed as well as when and of which document version, is available at the touch of a button. This information is particularly interesting with regard to the question of whether all employees have used the correct document at all times and were thereby qualified for the respective processes.

Who was informed and when of which document version?

In which context was the person informed of the amendments to the respective document version?

What information was made available to the employees, in order to be able to understand the amendments?

Were the employees always informed before a new document version came into force and thereby continuously suitably qualified?

Controlled documents statistics report

The control of documents is a complex process, with which many persons are involved who are subject to organisational, scheduling and other restrictions. It is all the more important that summary reports are available, from which one can see at a glance which employees still require information or which employees have not yet complied with the Read & Sign requirements . These “defaulting” employees can be reminded via the system’s mail centre at any time at the touch of a button by means of a personalised email.

Which Read & Sign requirements have yet to be complied with and in which context?

How many Read & Sign requirements have been acknowledged?

Technical Product Catalogue SMS

The current Technical Product Catalogue SMS and Audit Management is now available. Its focuses on the following functional areas:

• Registering safety-related incidents
• Investigation management
• Risk management (risk analysis and operative risk management)
• Committee management
• Audit management
• Safety performance indicators
• (Anonymous) safety guidelines

The Technical Product Catalogue SMS is now available in our Documents-section.

eControl TQMS Training and Qualification management at Albrecht Dürer Airport Nuremberg

The international airport “Albrecht Dürer Airport Nuremberg”, renamed on 5 December 2014, is the second largest airport in Bavaria. The Nuremberg Airport handles more than 60,000 flights and approx. 3.3 million passengers per year. The air freight volume is approx. 100,000 tons per year.

As Head of Operations & Service Control, Mr Ingo Ziegler’s responsibilities include the management and optimisation of processes. Mr Ziegler advised eControl in everything from drawing up the specification in the selection stage to the introduction and data migration and manages the system operation and the rolling out of software modules in the individual organisational units. In July 2013, Nuremberg Airport launched Audit and Incident management, focusing in particular on the following activities

• Management/Planning of internal and external audits
• Recording and processing of complaints
• Management/Planning of measures from audits and complaints
• Management/Planning of document management or of the annual assessment.

“Only by using suitable software such as eControl can the measures resulting from audit and complaints be verifiably and efficiently managed. All points have been widely approved by external auditors.”

In December, the largest software module to date in the form of eControl TQMS was put into operation. In December 2014 data migration was completed for departments with a predominantly centrally structured Qualification Management and the organisation was migrated to eControl aviation TQMS. The migration was carried out in cooperation with Arconda Systems AG and included personnel data, qualifications, profiles, historical qualifications and thus the level of training on the migration date.

From April 2015, eControl aviation will also be phased in for the organisational units whose training management is organised decentrally. eControl aviation offers various features to delegate the independent implementation of training measures to departments. TQMS’s authorisation management also provides the instruments, which a hierarchical superior requires, to monitor the maintenance of the level of qualification and the ongoing staff development of his employees.

The launch of the eControl TQMS module fulfils the requirements of (EU) regulation no. 139/2014, with particular emphasis on the points “ADR.OR.D.017 Training and capability check programme” in conjunction with “ADR.OR.D.015 Personnel requirements”.

- Ingo Ziegler, Head of Operations & Service Control, Albrecht Dürer Airport Nuremberg