The Quality Management System at Atlantic Airways

A briefing – October 2011

The new A319 which will enter into scheduled service on Atlantic Airways route network, spring 2012

The management’s challenge in 2009

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• Develop an integrated quality system for Operations, Airworthiness, Training and Maintenance

• Advocate a common understanding of the quality system across the organisation and simplify the quality system documentation

• More effective and transparent monitoring of the effectiveness of the quality system

Quality Management System Overview

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AOC

NPH Crew Training

René Askham

NPH Ground Operations

Pætur Rasmussen

NPH Continuing Airworthiness Remi Hansen

NPH Part 145 William Smith

NPH Flight Operations

Sámal Danielsen

Accountable Manager Magni Arge

Head of Training René Askham

OPS 1/3 Part M Part 145

FCL 1/2

OM-A OM-B OM-C OM-D CAME MOE TRTO Ops.

TRTO Tr.

Qua

lific

atio

n re

quire

men

ts

INITIAL TRAINING

RECURRENT TRAINING

Technical personnel

Operational

personnel

A QMS is first and foremost a concept: The foundation is the quality policy, which defines which quality the CEO/Accountable Manager expects from his organisation. He then empowers his middle management to hire to right people, support with them with good procedures, and shape them with effective training, to deliver the expected quality in the daily work.

Quality System Policy

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’I commit the organisation to operate and maintain our aircraft and train our personnel in compliance with EU-OPS, JAR-OPS 3, Part M, Part 145 and JAR-FCL, and additional requirements defined by DTA, Atlantic Airways and our customers, and within certificates conditions. To this end, I commit myself to the establishment, development, maintenance and funding of the quality system.’

Make sure the statement is precise, and that it refers to directly quantifiable and measurable quality requirements. And try to have only one policy for the whole organisation (relevant for airlines).

Management Organisation

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NPH Crew Training

René Askham

NPH Ground Operations

Pætur Rasmussen

NPH Continuing Airworthiness William Smith

NPH Part 145 Andrew Djurhuus

NPH Flight Operations

Sámal Danielsen

Accountable Manager Magni Arge

Head of Training René Askham

If middle management does not understand and support the quality system concept, they will not be able to use it as an effective tool to reach their goal: To stay compliant with the quality policy. So a lot of QMS training for management is necessary, and they must buy in.

Documentation/Procedures

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Flight & Ground Operations Recurrent Training

Airworthiness Maintenance Type Rating Training

OM-A OM-B OM-C OM-D CAME MOE TRTO Ops.

TRTO Tr.

Who is responsible to do what, and how, to ensure the ‘correct’ quality is delivered everyday.

Training

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Qua

lific

atio

n re

quire

men

ts

INITIAL TRAINING

RECURRENT TRAINING

Technical personnel

Operational personnel

Make sure, that the training you give people, relates directly to your written procedures in your manuals. Otherwise it is the trainer’s syllabi that defines quality, and not the manager’s manual. It may still lead to ”good” quality, but not necessarily the ”right” quality that the company (i.e. the Accountable Manager) expects. – And hire only people that fit your profiles.

Quality System Documentation

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•  ‘Quality Assurance Manual’ made obsolete

• The integrated quality system is documented in OM-A 3

• A few area-specific requirements documented in CAME, MOE and TRTO Manual

The documentation of the quality system must be accessible accross the organisation, and should therefore be in the main manuals, that the most personnel groups are trained to use. The quality department could have the specific audit procedures in a seperate quality assurance manual, but having them in e.g. the OM-A or CAME or MOE, makes it easier for the common employee, to get insight in how the audit work (quality assurance) is performed.

Quality System Review

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AOC

NPH Crew Training

René Askham

NPH Ground Operations

Pætur Rasmussen

NPH Continuing Airworthiness Remi Hansen

NPH Part 145 William Smith

NPH Flight Operations

Sámal Danielsen

Accountable Manager Magni Arge

Head of Training René Askham

OPS 1/3 Part M Part 145

FCL 1/2

OM-A OM-B OM-C OM-D CAME MOE TRTO Ops.

TRTO Tr.

Qua

lific

atio

n re

quire

men

ts

INITIAL TRAINING

RECURRENT TRAINING

Technical personnel

Operational

personnel

?

Quality assurance programme

Management evaluation

Management Evaluation

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• 10 times / year (combined with other management meeting activities)

• Participants: CEO/Accountable Manager (meeting chairman!), CFO, Nominated Postholders, Safety, Quality, Security

• Material prepared in advance and action list maintained by the CEO/AM

• Subjective evidence: Each managers own description of the quality system performance in his/her area

• Objective evidence: Review of audit results, QA KPIs (each manager presents his/her own findings, not the quality manager)

QA Key Performance Indicators

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The interesting thing here is not the nitty-gritty details about individual findings, but to see how well the managers use findings as a constructive approach to focus their change management efforts. Findings are not a threath, they are a help. But it requires that the quality department only gives you ”good” (i.e. reasonable) findings, and that they make effective follow-up of every finding.

Quality Assurance Programme

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• Audit and inspection programme

• Checklist system

• Audit/inspection reports

• Feed-back system (incl. QA KPIs)

• Response procedure

Audit Programme – Schedule (proces-oriented audits)

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Audit Programme - Checklists

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• Checklist database covering all regulatory requirements

• ~ 3000 entries, ready to use

• Lessons learned archived and retrievable for next audit

The ”Question” column contains the direct transcript of the regulatory requirement, formulated as a question. The ”Expectation column contains what the auditors expects to see/observe during the audit, to be satisfied that there is compliance. In this column you also compile lessons learned, and have them ready-for-use for next years audit.

Audit Programme - Auditors

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Audit Programme – Audit procedures

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Audit Programme - Reports

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Audit Programme – Response Logic

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Follow-up .30-90 days

Formulate reply

Perform corrective/preventive action

..

“open” “replied” “closed”

Common system understanding

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• Regular briefings to management during Management Evaluation meetings

‘Quality System Briefing’ to all technical and operational personnel every 3rd year

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Thank you