Air Cadets grounded?

[Shell Management]

Tomorrow at the RAeS

Airworthiness & Maintenance Group Workshop


How can the integrity of airworthiness accountability be ensured through contracts for services?


Speakers from Serco, their training provider Baines Simmons and the RAF, with a lawyer.

This half day workshop will build upon the outcomes of the last Airworthiness & Maintenance Group conference which was entitled 'Outsourcing Aircraft Support = Abdicating the Airworthiness Accountability?' and took place in October 2014. This event explored accountability and responsibility for airworthiness in the context of sub-contracted services.

5 Issues were identified that
affected airworthiness in the context of sub-contracted services:

The Definition of Accountability
The understanding of the definition of accountability varies between organisations. Different outsourcing models make it ever more challenging.

Organisational Complexity
Complex and bespoke arrangements, especially in the military context, between organisations in the supply chain mean that outputs are unpredictable when designing a support solution and it is difficult for one individual to be certain of compliance.

Contracts and Agreements
Formal agreements between operators, CAMOs, HUA providers etc are key to improving the way accountability and clarity is assured. There is a need to focus more on interfaces and the product. Hence
Contracts/IBAs/SLAs are key to this and should help to underpin assurance, although it shouldn’t be forgotten that they will only work if backed up with good communications and relationships.

Approvals and Oversight
Approvals are only good at ‘the point when the ink is drying’. Accountable managers need to review them personally and to examine their context to understand whether they can be relied upon – eg how old is the approval? This requirement for oversight activity needs to be included in formal arrangements. ‘Performance
Based Environment’ is the title of an EASA document which will place a requirement on accountable managers to ensure that their management system is effective.

Evidence for Decision Making
In many situations there is a lack of evidence to underpin airworthiness decisions. An example is the situation
with pooled parts. This issue is less of a hazard when parts are new but increases with age. Building in access to evidence, eg strip reports, reliability reports, QMS outputs at the contract stage is key.
Relationship building also plays a key part. If the CAMO does not have access to the QMS outputs then they will need to be replicated.

See more at: Royal Aeronautical Society | Event | Airworthiness & Maintenance Group Workshop