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Quality Management Software Solutions for the Airline Industry |
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The Airline industry is among the larger and growing industries, playing a major role in aiding economic growth, world trade, international investment and tourism and is therefore central to the globalization taking place in many other industries.
Air carriers are faced with the task of complying with numerous regulations required by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as well as Government Regulatory agencies such as Transport Canada and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Of highest importance in each of these regulating organizations is air safety, both in process and in practice.
In addition to demonstrating safety compliance to IATA, airline firms must also exemplify their conformity to safety standards to other members of IATA, therefore airlines continuously audit each other's operations. With all of the events occurring within an airline firm, whether it is a safety, environmental, quality, or financial issue, this creates a need for an Integrated Airline Management System (IAMS). An effective IAMS would be a seamless integrated system that is easy to use and would effectively manage your airline operations in accordance with the standards set forth by the regulatory bodies of the Airline industry. EtQ's Safety Management System (SMS) is part of an accepted IAMS.
During the year 2008, major safety incident rates among commercial air carriers dropped 57 percent. This fact shows an improvement in safety processes, as we are experiencing one of the safest periods of aviation. In order to continue to meet the goals set forth by the Airline industry's regulating agencies, an SMS has become critical to ensure that safety processes are followed exactly and that nothing is overlooked.
EtQ for Airlines is an integrated Quality and Compliance Management System that has been pre-configured to specifically address the needs of the Airline industry and maintain compliance to the standards set by regulatory bodies. EtQ's unique modular approach provides unparalleled flexibility and automation.
EtQ's Safety Management Software capabilities include:
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Job Safety Analysis (JSA) linked to Risk Assessment to proactively mitigate job risk and determine Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and other preventive measures needed to mitigate risk |
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Reporting to identify trends across the enterprise |
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Audits linked to Risk Assessment to identify areas in which corrective action is needed to mitigate risk |
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Data table within Reporting to enable configurable templates for Key Performance Indicator (KPI) tracking |
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Overview report to show how well an organization is meeting metrics |
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Operational Report to show frequency of events by occurrence type and effectively record ultimate results and effects. |
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Risk Assessment to determine risk of hazard occurring and measure residual risk |
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Challenges Facing the Airline Industry |
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Safety
In the airline industry, there is no competition when it comes to safety, as safety comes first. Programs such as the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) further safety practices within the industry by providing a single audit standard for the airline industry based on internationally recognized standards, resulting in increased safety and cost-effectiveness. EtQ's SMS has the ability to increase safety across an airline's enterprise through the use of modules such as JSA, which goes through each step of a job process to determine if there are safety issues at hand and to mitigate those risks proactively, as opposed to after the fact. EtQ's Reporting function is also able to increase safety through the use of reports that can identify trends across the enterprise by relating incidents through similarities in reports.
Integration
Beyond Safety, airlines carriers must handle business process across multiple disciplines, including Quality, Safety, Environmental, Security, Financial and more. An SMS spans many departments that are often related to each other. EtQ's risk-based system encompasses all areas of the organization, using a quantitative risk matrix that enables reporting across multiple departments. As a result, a single incident can be rolled up into one master incident report, providing a total risk for each department, and associated actions to be taken for each event within the system. This unified process for handling safety issues results in an efficient system, where no time is lost, no problem overlooked, and reporting is easily enabled up the management chain.
Collaborative, Enterprise Environment
Large airlines with multiple divisions typically have independent, hybrid systems in place. Bridging the gap between these systems is inefficient in the long-term, and ultimately will require expensive customizations to link the enterprise. Re-routing documents, meeting to discuss integration strategy, and IT man-hours in customizations result in lost time and money. EtQ's
Quality Management Software is designed to incorporate the whole enterprise in collaborating at the enterprise level, while maintaining each division's independent business workflow. Using tools such as the EtQ Enterprise Configuration Center, divisional elements can be configured in centralized environment and deployed to the enterprise, easily and effectively. This centralized resource can rapidly implement multiple sites, roll up reporting and provide increased visibility across the enterprise.
Safety Management System
EtQ's integrated Safety Management System provides a closed loop process in recording and reporting on Environmental, Heath and Safety events within the system. EtQ's unique Safety Management System is designed to prioritize and minimize the number of high-risk events using an advanced risk-based filtering model. This system automatically segregates and categorizes events at the source, uses quantitative risk assessment throughout the process, guiding decision making, and features a comprehensive corrective action and effectiveness check plan with risk mitigation history. EtQ uses over twenty best-in-class integrated modules and enterprise application integration to manage and measure quality and compliance processes and execute organizational change.
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