Employee safety
According to the FAA AC 120-72,
- MRM also should encourage employee safety training. Employee safety is an integral part of an overall safety culture in an organization.
- Working safely depends on eliminating human error and stressors in the work environment. Human error models are reviewed and placed in the context of one’s personal well-being. For example, a human error model used previously to analyze what led to an aircraft accident could also be used by trainees to analyze an accident that occurred within the hanger. By applying many of the same principles of human factors analysis, trainees could learn to work more safely in an otherwise hazardous environment.
- Second, MRM should emphasize the recognition and reduction of stressors. Maintenance personnel perform a wide range of physical activities. Certain ailments become stressors because they are aggravated by these physical activities. Stressor ailments that maintenance personnel are most vulnerable to include lower back pain (LBP), cardiovascular (heart) disease, fractures and/or chronic pain, hypertension, hearing damage, and exposure to dangerous chemicals and other environmental conditions. Therefore an effective MRM program should provide training in basic ergonomics (what and how to lift, workspace requirements, effects of temperature, noise, etc.). In addition, an effective MRM training program should teach maintenance personnel how to assess these problems, judge their susceptibility to them and identify how these problems ultimately impact well-being and performance.
- Cognitive and emotional stressors also exist for all people, regardless of their job. The consequences of these stressors should be evaluated in terms of human error in the maintenance environment and should be taught in the MRM course. The two predominant, cognitive and emotional stressors are complacency and fatigue.
