Human Factors / Research

Dear All,

For 10 years and until date, it becomes very important for Companies Managements, Employees, Decision Makers, and we can say even everyone to study the HUMAN FACTORS.
Human Factors are divided into TWO TOPICS. They are: 1) Physiology Factors. 2) Psychology Factors.

These two topics are important to understand because if someone think that they don't affect his life then he must be sure that they are going to affect others life.

How? When? Why?

I am going to explain this by giving examples on How? When? and Why?

A) Let us start with HOW? WHEN? WHY? from the physiological angle.

We must know about the human body and his senses like hearing, sight sense, smelling, touching, Tasting. These senses are very important to understand that they have functions which will affect taking decisions. Examples on these affected senses in aviation are:

1) When your eyes are affected, then the pilots, maintenance personal,..etc will take improper decisions because they are not able to see things correctly like when an engineer do his walk around for visual inspection or like pilot whe he observes the aircraft parameters during flight or while he reads the check lists,..etc.

2) When ears are affected, then the people working in aviation may make mistakes such as can't evaluate strange noise occurs during flight, or improper evaluation for a noise coming out from the engines while running, ..etc.

3) When the touch sense is affected, then and according to my experience sometimes you can evaluate internal leak for a component by feeling how hot it is after running. So, if I dont have the full ability to feel how hot a component is then I will take a decision to release back a component with internal leak existing and this will make troubleshooting harder.

4) When your smell sense is affected then I can for example see a leak below the wings and I will take a sample from it using my finger and smell it. If the smell sense is affected maybe I will think it is a water condensation and not a fuel leak.

5) If my tasting sense is affected, then maybe hydraulic will come on my lips and I lick it thinking that it is a water and not able to distinguish that it is hydraulic or poisonous material.

In Human Factor You study the human body parts and systems, how it works and what is it consists of. So, when you study it you will know how to care about it and keep it strong senses.

B) Let us start with HOW? WHEN? WHY? from the psychological angle.

All of us are humans, and we know how psycological factors affect us such as stress, environmental atmosphere, pressure, living costs, ...etc these factors will affect the way we take decisions like when you have financial problems and you are on duty flying an aircraft or repairing a component then most of your thinkings will be in your personal problem and this will reduce concentration of the brain on the procedure, safety, and how to troubleshoot.

There are something in the human factors study called DIRTY DOZEN. They are:

1) Lack of communication: like when somebody write a note for his colleague regarding an issue in doing a task. This note can be understood wrongle. So always it must be written in full details or at least without using alot of abbreviations.

2) Complacency: When you do something many times and you didn't find anything changed. then oneday you will say I have always done this check and I have never found anything wrong then I will not do it this time. VERY VERY COMMON AND DANGEROUS THINKING.

3) Lack of Knowledge: When you do something and you reach an area while doing it and you dont know how to do it. You may feel shame or afraid to say I DON'T KNOW. Then the shame will be bigger if you did it and caused a disaster.

4) Distraction: Very common factor. While you are working your mobile phone rings. You answer it and then after finishing the call you complete the job forgetting some points you must do. ALWAYS GO BACK 3 STEPS BEFOREE THE CALL.

5) Lack of Team Work: When you hate to work with someone or when you forget that all of people in the company are team then you will fail. Imagine that there are two pilots one is the captain another is the first officer. If they are not working in the cockpit as a team, be sure that in case of emergency the aircraft will crash.

6) Fatigue: Like working for many hours, not sleeping properly, all what you are thinking about is to make extra money with overtime. You think you are able and you are aware but believe me if you are honest with yourself then think how many times you have done mistakes because you didn't sleep well for days ago.

7) Lack of resources: Like having a problem on an aircraft and you need a part which is not available in your store. You may decide to disregard the problem and say "I will dispatch it". No, Ground the aircraft for sure is better.

8) Pressure: Liek when you get a call from your boss to inform you that you have to finish your job within an hour or less and you know that it takes more. Feeling afraid to lose the job. Believe me LOSE YOUR JOB IS MUCH BETTER THAN LOSING THE PEOPLE LIVES.

9) Assertiveness: A factor like when somebody brought you something to fix and he fill on you orders what to do according to his financial situation or needs of time. He orders you things just because he wants it like this and you know that it is wrong. DON'T DAMAGE YOUR STANDARDS for others to be happy.

10) Stress: Like political news. A war may happen. I will lose my job because of this war and such factors and thinkings. LIVE YOUR DAY, ALWAYS THINK THAT TOMORROW IS BETTER.

11) Lack of Awareness: When you do something always think of the consequences. Build a scenarios for what may happen if I install this here or there.

12) Norm: Like using things as equipment to reduce the time and taking short cuts that you think you are smarter than the manual or the manufacturer instructions. Sorry, you will be stupid and silly because even you succeed one or two times at the end you will fail. DONT DEPEND ON LUCK, THERE IS NO PLACE FOR LUCK IN OUR BUISINESS.

I hope you like such study and research I have done, and I hope we all are going to follow such instructions and make sure to stop doing any of the DIRTY DOZEN.

B.Regards
Ayman Shak'ah
Licensed Aircraft Maint. Engineer