Eric Pearson Quality in the FAA

FAA has been a quality organization from the beginning. FAA is tasked with the missions of regulations for aviation safety and promotion. The regulations for safety of flight are all inclusive and known the world over the benchmark. If an organization wishes to carry a certificate to perform business in the aviation sector such as an airline, repair, manufacturer, or flight school a safety program must be documented and in place. With the size of the FAA organization they have a quality program that is internal to them. The FAA has chosen to follow the ISO system of quality and put these practices in place at other aviation businesses.

ISO stands for International organization for standardization. ISO is a compilation of standards that can be universally applied to any organization. The assumption is that every organization will have practices in common with others and that there is a best practice. Unlike lean or six sigma ISO is concerned with documentation. ISO requires that everything you do must be a written procedure and that all procedures are verified. This allows transparency in an organization. Any body walking in can figure out what is going on with a little reading. Many corporations will only interact with others that have ISO certification. This world wide standard provides confidence in the quality of the organization.

The Mike Monroney Center in Oklahoma City is a campus dedicated to the quality of aviation safety. The center has the AVN which is responsible for flight procedures, The CAMI for medical concerns, TSI for accident investigation and the controllers academy.

The AVN has a budget of 140 million a year and 6000 employees. The AVN is split into three main categories, flight department, avionics and maintenance, and procedures. The flight department has 41 aircraft that range in size from kingairs to challenger jets. These aircraft are scheduled to inspect the operation of more than 6000 navigational aids around the world. These aids include in route aids and landing systems. This department is run by ISO procedures to ensure quality work that is repeatable. The avionics department applies many of the lean and 6s principals. Throughout the shops work boxes are neat and organized everything has its place. These principals work hard to achieve a safe work environment and place that is stress free. The aircraft maintenance must be impeccable and tools must be accounted for. FAA has found success in many of the same commercial quality programs. The procedures department is responsible for publishing flight procedures. These include approaches and departures from airports with Landing systems. These procedure keep aircraft from noise sensitive areas or other hazards such as radio towers or land features. These procedures are what pilots must follow to stay safe. They are published every 50 days and the writes must confirm that nothing new is in the area and if there are any changes that they are tested. The department has several safe guards in place such as testing the new

procedure in simulators that have various equipment from different manufactures and setups so that there is compatibility. The finished procedure is then tested on site with real aircraft and pilots.

The CAMI stands for Civil Aeromedical Institute. Like the AVN the CAMI is responsible for many areas. The area they are most known for is the true medical side. The CAMI is the one location where all pilots medical records are kept. They also test and decide which drugs pilot are aloud to use while flying and which ones will keep them grounded. In the case of an accident personnel can perform autopsies to find possible medical reasons. The less famous side is the engineering that keeps people alive during a crash. The CAMI test seat designs, aircraft evacuation techniques, and associated safety devices. The research performed there is responsible for much of the data gained in crash situations. They have discovered how strong to make seats and the tings people do on and after impact. The facility is well laid out and uses many of the lean and 6s principals. The floors are marked for walking and equipment placement. The research is carried out methodically and all parameters are recorded.

The TSI and Controller school have ISO all over them. They have all procedure recorded and followed to reliably produce competent accident investigators and air traffic controllers. These are the leading institutions for the subject matter. They become this way through consistent improvement and refinement of skills. You can see the constant improvement in the increase of technology. The controllers have

new simulators that are very detailed.

As mentioned above the FAA uses commercial programs and practices to improve the abilities of their programs. These systems work well inside and out of government as true quality departments improve any process regardless of the owner.