How to practise and apply MRM, you can read here:
1. Let's Warm up Before Our MRM Training Session
We will start gently by memorising what we have learned about Maintenance Resource Management in the previous blog article.
- maintenance resource management was established in the 1980s and 1990s
- this originated in the realisation that errors during maintenance had contributed to 20% of air accidents
- MRM developed from CRM in six generations
- in the process, the collaboration of airlines, universities, and aviation authorites was remarkable
- the human factors play as a decisive role as they do in CRM
- MRM is the adaption of CRM to the peculiar work environment during maintenance and repair
- the technicians' common goal is to place a perfectly intact airliner into service
- in order to accomplish this, mistakes and near-mistakes have to be detected in good time and mended, before the airplane can be handed over for a safe flight
MRM is applied practically by paying attention to the human factors, as well as employing imortant principles known from CRM, such as situational awareness, communication, and speak up, accordingly. This may sound simple, but a team has to be well-rehearsed if it wants to be successful.
2. The Contents of MRM Training Courses in Aviation
2.1. The 1998 ICAO Recommendations
Already in 1998, the International Civil Aviation Organisation, ICAO, set the goals for MRM training courses in a recommended syllabus. These were subdivided into three levels of proficiency. In the first generation of maintenance resource management, the focus was on raising awareness to the topics. In 1998, it was the aim to improve the knowledge, skills, and attitude concerning each of the following items, as described in more detail here (pages 2-1-19 to 2-1-22):
- human factors
- safety culture and organisational factors
- human error
- human perfomance and work environment
- the respective organisation's human factors programme
2.2. The UK CAA's Recommendations
In order to fulfill the ICAO requirements, the UK Civil Aviation Authority, CAA, defined the following topics:
- safety culture and organisational factors
- errors, violations, and noncompliance with procedures
- individual factors, such as shift work, stress, and fatigue
- environmental factors, such as tooling and ergonomic audit programmes
- procedures, documentation, and maintenance data
- communication, handovers, and sign-offs
- planning, preparation, and team work
- professionalism and integrity
- the organisation's error management programme, including error-reporting, investigation, and solution follow-up
3. Participation in MRM Training Courses Means Action Learning
3.1. Who Practises in MRM Training Courses?
This question is valid, indeed. At first, such training courses were aimed at upper management. Only in the course of time, all occupational groups working in maintenance, servicing, and repair, were included.
Now, the training courses comprise technicians in the first place, but also engineers, quality management controllers, and air accident investigators. Because of that it is reasonable to offer specific training units to the respective subgroups along with a common part about the human factors.
3.2. What Is Practised?
When designing the MRM training courses today, the organisers can choose from the exercises of six MRM generations. The participants train mainly practically and engage in interactive exercises, role plays, and case analyses, for instance. The items below have already been part of the first two MRM generations:
- interpersonal communication
- problem solving and decision-making
- assertiveness and conflict resolution
- situational awareness
- shift-turnover briefings
- Leadership
- awareness of stress and fatigue, including prevention
4. Application of the Course Contents
Who has not yet industriously been to training courses, or conventions and has learned new topics there? What happens to the course contents after the participants are back to work? It is the ideal attitude that new knowledge and skills should be integrated into daily work. For this, one can take the following steps.
4.1. Setting Goals Before the Actual MRM Training Course
Already when enrolling into the couse, the participants think about what they want to learn. This works best if they have already detected room for improvement in their work, defined goals, and written them down.
4.2. During the MRM Training Course
During the training course, the participants compare the teached knowledge and skills to the reality at their workplace and ponder how to put their insights from the exercises into practice.
The success is maximised if those who work together also practise together. In such a group, the contens can be customised to meet the particular needs.
4.3. Back to the Workplace
Now, the actual work begins according to the defined goals and the corresponding notes from the course. For instance, SOPs, checklists, or work routines are optimised. CRM principles, such as decision-making and situational awareness are applied actively, and amendments are made to the error management programme.
4.4. Sustainable Securing of the Improvements in MRM
It is known that course contents can wane in the real world over time. How do the technicians manage to secure their positive changes after their training course in a sustainable manner? They achieve this by thinking about the items they want to secure sustainably already before and during the course.
These items are written down, as well, together with the corresponding points in time and methods of review. For the review, standardised questionnaires for the employees, checklists and, of course, discussions can be used.
5. MRM Training Courses and Their Successes
Maintenance Resource Management training courses are not mandatory. Considering this, the question about their success is interesting nontheless, and has been addressed accordingly (Patankar, 2019).
5.1. Direct Results During Work
On the whole, especially the frontline technicians showed enthusiasm for the MRM training programmes. This lessened if improvements of the workplace ergonomics on the part of the supervisors did not occur.
Due to MRM practice, the technicians, first of all, changed their attitude towards stress management, which correlated most clearly with the reduction of lost-time injuries and ground damage.
Taken together, the participants of the training courses showed great commitment to apply their new knowledge, whereas the corporate culture not always supported such changes. This demonstrates that follow-up interviews, which include all levels of an organisation, help to secure the success of MRM training in the long run.
5.2. Impact of MRM Training Courses on the Operational Result
Even though the Federal Aviation Administration, FAA, in the USA provides a calculator for the return on investment of MRM training programmes, and although several authors have dealt with the topic, it remains difficult to calculate exactly, what influence on the operational result a single training programme has in synopsis with all other safety measures of an organisation.
However, it can be stated that a single accident, which is due to a lack of safety, severely damages the image and the value of the respective airline. In addition, it is not only advantageous from a humane and ethical point of view, but also economically if injuries of the personnel and ground damage are kept to a minimum.
5.3. The Worldwide Influence of the Training Programmes on the Safety Culture in MRM
As in crew resource management, the error management changed over time when MRM was developed in six generations. It took more than a decennium until one had found the way away from accusation and punishment towards Just Culture .
As we know from CRM, an error management, in which mistakes are reported and investigated, also improves safety.
Patankar M.S.: „Maintenance Resource Management for Technical Operations“ in: „Crew Resource Management“ Third Edition (2019), edited by Kanki B.G., Anca J., Chidseter Th.R., Academic Press in an imprint of Elsevier, London, UK, pp. 382-390
6. Where Can We Ourselves Apply MRM Advantageously?
We can ask ourselves the following questions even if we are not regularly entrusted with maintenance and repair.
- What type of maintenance and service belongs to our own area of responsibility?
- Do we work on this as a team?
- What consequences would negligence and errors have?
- What can we transfer to dangerous work and collaboration between teams?
6.1. Equipment in Science and Diagnostics as Examples
In medical science and diagnostics, technical equipment of varying complexity is utilised. Sometimes, several teams work with such equipment in turn, for instance on particular microscopes, or a flow cytometer. Depending on the apparatus, calibrations and simple problem solving belong to the day-to-day work.
How do we communicate and correct defects and inaccuracies we have noticed, before they lead to a wrong result with potentially far-reaching consequences during our or another team's work? Who will conduct the recalibration, or necessary repair work? Do we need the help of a technician?
6.2. From Where MRM Knows Collaboration Between Teams
Collaboration between teams is well-known to people in medical professions. Indeed, one orientated oneself on the nurses' shift-turnovers in the hospital when designing the collaboration and turnovers in MRM.
It goes without saying that nothing may be left out during such turnovers between teams. Hence, time and a meeting room are dedicated to the shift-turnovers. Partially, there are standardised orders in which the facts are reported.
Especially in the emergency medical service, also technical details should be communicated to the team which takes over. Are there any problems concerning the equipment? If so, what needs to be replaced or renewed? For example, it would have huge consequences to arrive at a patient who needs artificial ventilation with the respirator out of order.
6.3. MRM and Dangerous Tasks
Every team which does dangerous work, has established safety standards, of course. The additional focus in maintenance resource management is on the avoidance of potential accidents during hazardous work by applying CRM principles.
This combination of awareness of all types of danger and of techniques known from CRM exceeds the valuable occupational safety which is already in place.
If we ourselves now carry out maintenance work, we benefit from using CRM principles, such as situational awareness, and planning ahead, speak up, and communication wisely in order to neither damage expensive and sensitive equipment momentously, nor injure ourselves.
7. In the Next Blog Article We Will Hold a Debriefing Session
How do we conduct a successful debriefing session after training scenarios and real calls? We will reveal together, how the team collaborates in such a session, sheds light on the underlying causes of events, and deduces consequences. Of course, debriefing sessions are not restricted to the emergency medical service world. Rather, you can hold one yourself at any time.
Author: Eva-Maria Schottdorf
Date: May 25th 2022