Tag Archives: Sextant Readings Solutions

Aviation Hazard, Occurrence and Incident Reporting and Investigation

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Safety is the biggest focus within aviation, as a failure to comply in a process or procedure can lead to a catastrophic effect. Worldwide governing bodies, including ICAO, IBAC and IATA, encourage and enforce any company associated with aviation to have an effective safety management solution in place. As the US moves through the SMS rulemaking effort, the FAA has provided guidance for operators including Air Carriers, MRO’s, Manufacturers, Flight Schools, Corporate, Charter and General Aviation.

Throughout industry, it is widely acknowledged that encouraging a non-punitive reporting culture, or “just culture”, is an effective way to ensure quality and safety related incidents are reported – in turn, helping to prevent future occurrences.

As with any module in Q-Pulse, Incident Reporting and Investigation can be configured to manage multiple types of reports. Reports can be automated to include areas such as Bird Strikes, TCAS RA, Airprox, Flight Crew Reports, Cabin Crew Reports, Ground Handling Reports, Confidential Reporting and Voluntary Reporting programs (ASAP, MSAP) and any other type of report required in order to manage safety effectively and efficiently.

Through the Q-Pulse Incident Reporting and Investigation module, established workflows can be defined for each individual report with individual/department notifications of actions required, timescales for completion and escalation policies. Q-Pulse seamlessly integrates with an organization’s email software, ensuring that all individuals concerned with an incident have full visibility of the progress of on-going actions.

Current reports within the organization can be set up with a user friendly report designer, providing a complete overview at any time of safety performance. Furthermore, management can analyze the aggregate incident/occurrence data to identify trends, highlight improvement opportunities and mitigate risks throughout the organization.

For airlines, Q-Pulse Incident Reporting and Investigation can integrate with Flight Data Management (FOQA) solutions allowing the safety department direct access to specific FOQA events that are pertinent to their investigations, streamlining processes and delivering corrective/preventative actions in a timely manner.

The objectives for Incident Reporting and Investigation are to:

  • Capture reported data that reflects an organization’s adherence to regulator’s procedures
  • Provide a simple and effective incident reporting design interface
  • Applies automatically on-going action tracking and communication that replicates a company’s existing workflow

Provides an effective, user friendly overview to aid trend analysis, highlight areas of improvement and manage

Aviation SMS and FOQA Integration

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Sextant Readings recognizes that within the aviation industry there are many IT suppliers that provide systems to manage the day to day running of the organization. While Sextant Readings specializes in compliance, safety and quality software, there are also other IT suppliers that have synergies to allow Q-Pulse to effectively manage the data integrated from these systems to manage both quality and safety. Through integration, Sextant Readings’s approach is to create a holistic view of safety and in turn allow the organization to have a full understanding of areas of concern which can be identified for improvement.

FOQA integration is an extension of Q-Pulse that provides a two-way interface between Flight Operational Quality Assurance (FOQA) analysis through Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) solutions and the Safety Management System (SMS), which in turn streamlines the incident investigation process. Flight safety data can be centralized and at the same time improve visibility and accessibility throughout an organization.

Q-Pulse FOQA Integration encourages the reporting and subsequent investigation of events where operational parameters have been exceeded. Through the incidents being reported and investigated, corrective or preventative action can be taken to mitigate risks and in turn improve safety levels.

The FOQA data is instantly accessible from the SMS, allowing quick access to events related to an investigation, which in turn saves time and promotes corrective actions to be implemented more quickly.

Q-Pulse FDM Integration allows full analysis of related incidents and in turn can provide a review of associated incidents and enable the identification of trends, leading to improved safety levels and increased efficiency performance.
Ideagen Gael is partnered with three major FOQA solution suppliers:

  • Aerobytes
  • Flight Data Services
  • Sagem

Ideagen Gael is constantly working with other vendors to increase the scope of Q-Pulse FOQA Integration.

The objectives of FOQA Integration are to:

  • Encourage reporting and investigation of events where operational parameters have been exceeded
  • Improve safety levels and mitigate risk
  • Improve efficiency in the process of safety management
  • Identify trends for analysis and identify changes in processes and procedures where necessary

Aviation Safety Data Sharing Integration with Q-Pulse

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ASIAS (Aviation Safety Information Sharing and Analysis System) supported by the FAA and STEADES (Safety Trend Evaluation and Analysis Data Exchange System) provided by IATA and are aviation safety incident data management and analysis programs.

  • ASIAS combines data from a number of sources, including Flight Operations Quality Assurance programs (FOQA), Aviation Safety Action Programs (ASAP), the Aviation Safety Reporting System, the Air Traffic Safety Action Program for air traffic controllers, the national offload program, radar track data and data from ASDE-X.
  • The STEADES database provides the world’s largest database of de-identified airline incident reports, providing a secure environment for airlines to pool safety information for global benchmarking and analysis needs.

Both provide data on key safety performance indicators, helping airlines to benchmark and establish safety performance targets.

Operator data is made available to ASIAS using Application Program Interface (API) capability of Q-Pulse. STEADES integration with Q-Pulse allows customers to provide their data to IATA directly, securely and with confidence to contribute to the powerful analysis tool that IATA provides.

The objectives of STEADES integration is to:

  • Simplify the process for Ideagen Gael’s customers to provide data in a format required by regulators
  • Ensure data is communicated in a secure and confidential manner
  • Provides Ideagen Gael’s customers with the ability to contribute to the appropriate program with minimal effort.

Airlines agree common plan for tackling emissions

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CAPE TOWN | Mon Jun 3, 2013 8:04am EDT

(Reuters) – Global airlines have agreed on a proposal for tackling aircraft emissions in a bid to break international deadlock over an issue that has stoked fears of a carbon trade war.

Airlines representing 85 percent of global traffic urged governments to adopt a single market-based system designed to offset growth in their post-2020 emissions against the funding of projects to cut emissions deemed harmful to the environment.

The decision is designed to offer governments a basis for negotiation after United Nations talks failed to resolve a stand-off between the European Union and a broad flank of other countries over an issue with cross-border implications.

Airlines have been racing to avert a trade war after the European Union suspended an emissions trading scheme for a year to give opponents time to agree on a global system.

So far, little progress has been made in the UN effort to craft an agreement to lower emissions from international air travel, raising doubts that a September target date can be met.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA), a group of 240 originally state-owned airlines set up to help the UN harmonize aviation after World War II, backed the plan after balancing the interests of airlines usually noted for cut-throat competition.

State-owned Chinese and Indian airlines voted against the measure, echoing what analysts see as the reluctance of their governments to set a precedent for wider climate control talks.

IATA’s director general told Reuters earlier that failure to agree a common position would expose the airline industry to a “patchwork horror story” of different regulations.

Airlines have been trying to use a slim window of opportunity to smooth over their own divisions and seize the initiative before the UN’s aviation body meets in September.

One of the most sensitive topics is whether the whole industry should pay for its emissions or whether the airlines growing the most should pay the most.

Airlines in the Gulf and Asia are growing at a much faster pace than those in mature European and North American markets. The IATA plan includes safeguards to protect the various camps.

“It is a question of finding the right sweet spot,” American Airlines Chief Executive Thomas Horton told Reuters.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher, Siva Govindasamy, Samantha Lee; Editing by Mark Potter)

 

Sextant Readings Solutions – aviation professionals with a focus on Safety and Risk Management, Quality Management and Quality Assurance, and Compliance for the Aviation Industry, is an IS-BAO Support Services Affiliate, IS-BAO safety consultant and Auditor

Key Components of a Risk Management System

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Sextant Readings Solutions - Risk Key Components

Key Components of a Risk Management System

Risk management requires organization support, an assurance framework and the ability to manage a collection of risks and opportunities. An organization that is successful in implementing an effective risk management system will recognize that there is an upside and a downside to risk.

In order to benefit from a robust risk management system, there are five key components that an organization is required to implement. It should:

  • Ensure executive management support and understanding
  • Consider risk in objective setting and decision making
  • Make the management system transparent, inclusive and accessible to all
  • Continually sense change and respond accordingly
  • Ensure that engagement is systematic, timely and sustainable

The Challenges

Ensuring these five key components comes with its own challenges.

Organizations face the challenge of ensuring that the terminology and methodologies are widely understood and consistently applied. All risk must be systematically evaluated, assessed and managed effectively and risk management and understanding must be widely adopted in all disciplines across the organization.

Risk management is an on-going process, and organizations must be ever ready for scrutiny and able to stand up to audit, as well as to ensure that learning from every incident is shared.

The Pitfalls

For effective risk management, organizations must avoid storing information in disconnected systems, formats and locations and make sure that change is managed and communicated effectively. Organizations are also open to exposure from actions that are not assigned or completed while time intensive and error prone reporting processes could be harmful, or even fatal, to the business

Learn about Ideagen Gael’s Risk Management Solutions

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Learn more about Ideagen Gael’s Risk Management solutions

To help you understand the challenges and pains around risk management, we provide a number of resources that you can read and view at your convenience.

Have a look at our Success Story to see how we achieved ISO 27001 certification using only our own products and you can also view our Recorded Webinars collection, which cover best practice and ideas for improvement.

You can also learn more about the Bowtie methodology – the visual diagram inherent in the Ideagen Gael Risk product – from the side banner.

Professional Services

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Risk Implementation Professional Services

Establishing risk management processes and a risk culture within your organization helps to create greater resilience. Strong risk management processes and understanding helps your organization capitalize on opportunity, drive business success through delivering objectives and, in doing so, increase stakeholder value.

Our professional services can help deliver successful risk management. Through our consultants and our global partner network, our consultancy ranges in scope from simply providing a software solution through to full facilitation and project management to deliver robust risk management across an organization. We will jointly assess how effective your organization’s current risk management processes are – as well as the level of understanding of risk management within your business. You, working with our team, can determine the status of your risk management, how effective your processes currently are and highlight areas of improvement that we can help with.

Over the last 20 years, our professional services organization has delivered many projects, and our global partner network is professionally trained to provide exceptional levels of customer service and support. This ensures we are well placed to offer international customers a level of service that is second to none.

Our consultants and partner network will be as active in your project delivery as you determine – which could simply be staged progress reviews through to a complete project management and successful conclusion. Initial and strategic reviews with our professional services organization helps to determine the scope of your risk management project, entering consultation to gauge your current risk management situation and reviewing your current level of understanding and consistency to provide a clear picture of what can be achieved. Deliverables and key milestones are identified and highlighted, taking into account resources and constraints along the way.

Q-Pulse Integration

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Q-Pulse Integration

Ideagen Gael Risk’s ability to integrate with Q-Pulse enables operational data held across the organization to be directly associated with:

  • Building confidence in the knowledge that your risk management system is effective.
  • Providing early warning indicators based on your risk management requirements and making the right preventive decisions before it is too late.
  • Linking Ideagen Gael Risk to Q-Pulse documents, assets, incidents and non-conformances to provide the information you need to assess your system.
  • Linking Ideagen Gael Risk to other operational systems that mitigate risk in your organization.

For example, when reviewing a risk control linked to a Q-Pulse procedure, Ideagen Gael Risk provides you with a summary that highlights key information such as:

  • Number of non-conformances
  • Last review date
  • Last audit date
  • How often updated
  • Number of people trained on this procedure

Sextant Readings Solutions - Integration with Docs

This is key information that is vital to support any type of review.

Ideagen Gael Risk is an integrated solution providing comprehensive risk assessment, treatment and management across the whole organization.

 

 

Risk Integration

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Integration

An effective SMS Information Management solution has the ability and framework to be successfully integrated with other software systems – allowing organizations to link their existing business systems with the risk management solution.

The integration is achieved by utilizing APIs, allowing organizations to seamlessly operate a series of existing systems concurrently with the SMS Information Management solution for increased benefit. Indeed, if there is intelligent data being stored on a standalone system within your organization, it would make sense to integrate this system with a SMS Information Management solution.

An effective SMS Information Management solution can be integrated to ensure your risk management is effective and allowing you to make the right preventive decisions before it is too late. For example, when reviewing a risk control linked to a procedure, The SMS Information Management solution provides you with a summary that highlights key information such as non-conformances, review dates and audit dates and links to documents, assets, incidents and non-conformances to provide the information you need to assess your system.

 

 

Risk Value Creation

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Sextant Readings Solutions - Risk Value Creation

Value Creation

Risk management has traditionally focused on Value Protection – taking steps to ensure something undesirable doesn’t happen. Yet the disciplines of risk management are ideal for identifying the contributing factors and how they ought to be managed to optimize performance – Value Creation