Overflight Fees

Historically, quality management systems have been designed to control the operational business processes of organizations and install mechanisms to prevent nonconformances from reaching customers.  When we take a look at most of the systems in place today, we rarely find mechanisms for determining true responsibility, nor do we find processes for assuring proper accountability.  In most cases, organizations are doing their best to keep up with the pace of delivery requirements and are frequently challenged with their own internal cultural hurdles.

Organizations need to start thinking more in terms of increasing the accuracy of their problem analysis processes and ensuring accountable parties are taking responsibility for the problems they own.  If not, then problems will continue to cycle again-and-again.  Here are a few suggestions for eliminating performance issues and developing a quality-focused culture.

• Ensure leadership believes in the importance of killing problems and behaves in a consistent manner to support a quality culture.
• Ensure organizational policies and procedures are aligned to ensure process owners are held accountable for all aspects of their performance.
• Ensure process owners have the resources needed to perform their responsibilities as expected.
• Ensure organizational members have the intellectual understanding to perform the processes for which they are responsible.
• Plan and fund to eliminate problems quickly.
• Ensure there are effective communication processes throughout the organization.
• All the above also apply to your supplier-base.
• Hold suppliers financially responsible for performance.

In review of the above recommendations, it is obvious that there is no silver bullet that will fix all the ills of an organization.  To sustain performance a quality culture must exist.

Once established, a quality culture is very fragile.  The integrity of a desired organizational culture is dependent on the leadership actions - never compromise the promises made.  Meaning, the organization's policies and procedures are promises made to the organization, its suppliers, partners, and customers, and any intentional deviation is considered a lie.  Trust will be rapidly eroded and process integrity greatly compromised.  If we expect performance to be sustained, we must hold everyone accountable for their own actions, behavior and performance... Especially ourselves.

Be advised that change 1 to FAA Order 8130.21E has been signed by AIR-200. The scope of the change is as follows:

a. Paragraph 205 was changed to allow manufacturing designated airworthiness representatives (DAR) and maintenance DARs, when authorized, to issue Form 8130 3 for domestic airworthiness approval purposes at certificated air agencies and air carriers.

b. Paragraph 305k was revised allowing serial/batch number information in Block 11 of Form 8130-3 for return-to-service items.

c. Paragraph 305m(1) was deleted, which required the term "approval for return to service" to be entered in Block 13 when the right side of the form is completed. Paragraphs were re-numbered and sample forms and references were revised as necessary.