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CRM is the sharing of knowledge and best practices to reduce errors and incidents.

Used by high reliability organizations (HROs)

CRM has been used by commercial airlines since 1981

OVERVIEW CRM is concerned with the cognitive and interpersonal skills

needed to manage resources within an organized system, not so much with the technical knowledge and skills required to operate equipment.

In this context, cognitive skills are defined as the mental processes used for gaining and maintaining situational awareness, for solving problems and for making decisions. Interpersonal skills are regarded as communications and a range of behavioral activities associated with teamwork.

In many operational systems as in other walks of life, skill areas often overlap with each other, and they also overlap with the required technical skills. Furthermore, they are not confined to multi-crew craft or equipment, but also relate to single operator equipment or craft as they invariably need to interface with other craft or equipment and various other support agencies in order to complete a mission successfully.

HISTORY Initiated by NASA in 1979

NASA discovered crashes due to lack of: Interpersonal communicationPoor decision makingLack of leadership skills

SKILLS OF CRM

Opening or attention getter - Address the individual. "Hey Chief," or "Captain Smith," or "Bob," or however the name or title that will get the person's attention.

State your concern - Express your analysis of the situation in a direct manner while owning your emotions about it. "I'm concerned that we may not have enough fuel to fly around this storm system," or "I'm worried that the roof might collapse."

State the problem as you see it - "We're showing only 40 minutes of fuel left," or "This building has a lightweight steel truss roof, and we may have fire extension into the roof structure."

State a solution - "Let's divert to another airport and refuel," or "I think we should pull some tiles and take a look with the thermal imaging camera before we commit crews inside."

Obtain agreement (or buy-in) - "Does that sound good to you, Captain?"

MODULES OF CRM Basic Theory of Information processing Human Error, Reliability and Error

Management Fatigue and Workload Management Situational Awareness Communication & Management Automation CRM for Single Pilots

BASIC THEORY OF INFORMATION PROCESSING

Information Processing defined Information processing is the process of receiving

information through the senses analyzing and making it meaningfull.

Decision making is the choice between two or more alternatives.

Information Processing Model Information processing can be represented as a model.

This shows the main elements of the process from receipt of information from the senses, to outputs such as decision making and actions.

HUMAN ERROR, RELIABILITY AND ERROR MANAGEMENT Human error is inevitable. What is important is to ensure

that human error does not result in adverse events such as air accidents.

This can be addressed in two ways: reducing errors in the first place, and controlling errors such that they, or their immediate effects, are detected early enough to allow remedial action. CRM addresses both types of mitigating strategies, but concentrates particularly on error detection, especially in the multi-crew situation.

Human reliability is the science which looks at the vulnerability of human beings to make errors (or less than perfect performance) under different circumstances. One could argue that it is more of an art than a science, since it is very difficult to predict, in quantifiable terms, human reliability in different situations, and from individual to individual. However, there are certain conditions under which humans are more likely to make errors (e.g. during circadian lows, when stressed, when overloaded, etc.).

FATIGUE AND WORKLOAD MANAGEMENT

This Module deals with ‘readiness to cope’ in some sense, in terms of an individual’s physical and mental ability to cope with work demands, and how he manages those work demands.

The ideal would be for flight crew to be at peak fitness and alertness all the time, and to be able to manage the workload such that work demands never exceed ability to cope. However, life isn’t like that, and there are times when individuals are fatigued, or stressed, and workload sometimes exceeds ability to cope. CRM aims to help flight crew to plan their workload as far as they are able, making best use of the team, and taking into account the fact that some individuals may be performing below peak levels (e.g. due to fatigue, etc.).

It is also important for managers to be aware of such human performance issues when planning (rosters etc.).

SITUATIONAL AWARENESS

Situation Awareness (SA) is acknowing what is going on around you… essentially recognising “the big picture”. It’s is fundamental to correct decision making and action.

Information processing tends to be the term used for the psychological mechanism of receiving and analyzing information; situation awareness is a description of an individual’s – or a team – understanding of the aircraft state and environment, based on perceived and processed information.

SA is more than just perception – it is understanding the meaning of what you perceive, how it might change in the future, and the implications.

COMMUNICATION & MANAGEMENT One of the basic underlying premises of CRM is that a team can,

and should, perform better than two (or three) individuals in the cockpit. The aim of CRM is to ensure that 1+1>2, as opposed to 1+1<2 (in a two pilot cockpit), and that team performance takes precedence over individual performance. Good CRM is getting the balance right as a team, whilst recognising that the Captain has the final say and responsibility for the safety of the aircraft. In order to be effective, team members must be able to talk to each other, listen to each other, share information and be assertive when required. Commanders should take particular responsibility for ensuring that the crew functions effectively as a team. Whilst the emphasis in CRM is primarily upon the cockpit crew, and how they work as a team, it is also important to look at wider team effectiveness, namely the whole flight crew. CRM principles may also extend to situations where ATC, maintenance, company experts, etc., are considered to be part of the team (especially in emergency situations or in a single pilot environment). A UK based study of 249 F/O’s reported that nearly 40% of them had on several occasions failed to communicate to the Captain their proper doubts about the operation of the aircraft. The most common reason being the desire to avoid conflict and deference to the experience and authority of the Captain.

AUTOMATION Automation in the aviation domain has been increasing

for the past two decades. Pilot reaction to automation varies from highly favourable to highly critical depending on both the pilot’s background and how effectively the automation is implemented.

Modern aircraft feature a variety of automation technologies to help the pilot with such things as checklist execution, navigation, descent planning, engine configuration, and system monitoring. Older aircraft can be retrofitted to incorporate many of these features by replacing older radios with modern units, replacing traditional gauges with computer monitors, and linking everything with computer processors.

One of the goals of automation is to improve the pilot’s situational awareness. A related goal is to decrease the workload required to maintain a given level of awareness.

CRM FOR SINGLE PILOTS

CRM has been around in different forms since the early years of aviation. What has changed is the increased reliability of aircraft and aircraft systems; the percentage of accidents caused by human factors; the subsequent recognition of the part played by the human element and the attempt to define good and poor CRM practice.

The natural development of CRM has, not surprisingly, been mainly on multicrew aircraft as this was supported by flight and cockpit voice recorders, and the use of simulators facilitated scenarios where CRM situations could be practiced and discussed. Some high profile accidents involving multi-pilot aircraft also drew public attention to the subject. It is not surprising, therefore, that CRM tended to be regarded as being mainly applicable to multi-crew operations. This focus is understandable as much of the written material produced on CRM has been specifically written for multi-crew situations and has, to some extent, concentrated on the communication and relationships between pilots.

Single Pilot operations do exist in an airliner from time to time. If one crewmember should leave the flight deck for a short time it will leave only one pilot at the controls leaving that person with what essentially is single pilot skills.

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