Tuesday, January 21, 2014

An As9100 Consultant Helps Streamline Aviation Companies While Facilitating Certification

By Judy Sullivan


The flying public is reasonably unaware of how many complex system of systems must all come together to make air travel possible. They are concerned with safety, their luggage and delays, and anything they need by exception. Aviation companies that wish to remain competitive or become the best can use an as9100 consultant to make the effort easier.

A serious challenge to senior leadership in any company that elects to pursue greater efficiency and quality is the reaction of their employees. To workers, any such management move smacks of danger to either changing or eliminating their job. Handled poorly, workers can not only resent the attempt to change things, but get very creative in the effort to thwart possible change, even without knowing what it entails.

This creates two problems, for the company, it means one must stay alert and agile to stay relevant, for the consumer, it means worry that safety or quality will be compromised. As long as customers can rely on the consistency of service airlines produce, there is no concern, and that is the genesis of global voluntary standardization, certified independently.

ISO is an organization comprised of the national standards bodies of over 150 countries. They address the need for internationally accepted levels of equality of products and services regarding fitness for purpose and safety. Every country has a unique academic, cultural and political approach even when the subject is science, with differing assumptions and conclusions about many things, making such guidelines challenging to produce.

It is not a simple process to gain such accreditation, however, as the process includes an analysis of every process in an organization, which means a self analysis must be conducted first. Even beginning the effort to gain the qualification nearly assures benefits to the organization and even the bottom line. It is a rare company that does not find many improvements on its own just by carefully documenting everything they do.

Unfortunately for businesses, this is not the kind of accreditation one can simply apply for and get approval. It entails a thorough, company wide analysis of everything that is done to produce the product or service, and the supporting functions, then an application and finally an independent externally conducted assessment of the company. It also means senior leaders cannot order it to be done, the workers supervisors and leaders will have to work together to succeed.

The kind of deep look at the business is unlike most management reviews, it entails every process accomplished by anyone working, from administrative support and training to operational flying. The goal of this first deep look is to assess exactly what is really being done, seeking those tasks that either hurt efficiency or do not help. This is a difficult step to accomplish without an independent outside assistant.

Identifying unnecessary work improves efficiency instantly, better and faster ways to accomplish other tasks, or the outsourcing of them, can also increase efficiency and often please employees. Getting everyone actively involved while still operating the company is not easy. An as9100 consultant will have many ideas on how to smoothly implement the effort without aggravating the workforce or frustrating management.




About the Author:



No comments: