BFGOODRICH AEROSPACE MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR GROUP
Tom Smith, quality liaison and MEDA administrator for BFGoodrich, reported that technicians involved in an error often rank among a group's top performers. Investigators often report that technicians feel frustrated because they may have been taught to perform a task in a manner that doesn't agree with the maintenance manual procedure. "When they find out that MEDA aims to help correct that kind of problem, rather than discipline them for not following the manual, you can hear a real sigh of relief!" according to Smith.

Bill Ashworth, BFGoodrich vice president of quality and engineering, said, "MEDA is ahead of its time in terms of simplicity and ease of use. It's a great tool. You don't have to be a human factors expert to use MEDA. Its structure and simplicity give you uniform and repeatable results. And, it brings visibility to the whole company at the management level. Every manager knows that his or her manager is looking at the same information."

BFGoodrich has created a computerized database patterned after the MEDA results form. It makes results available to all managers by means of the company's internal network. The addition of the computer database gives management a real-time snapshot of what errors are occurring, why they are occurring, and what actions are being taken.

BFGoodrich used MEDA to investigate a door rigging issue. The investigation determined that an error on a task card contributed to the technician's error, and specific changes were suggested to the training program and maintenance procedures to prevent similar errors. The changes eliminated the problem and a significant amount of rework associated with it. BFGoodrich is expanding the MEDA results form and database to include errors found during operational audits. The objective is to eliminate factors that contribute to errors before they can cause an event serious enough to require upper management or regulatory attention.

In the spirit of looking beyond the person to get to the problem, Cathy Harris, U.S. Federal Aviation Administration liaison for quality assurance, said, "One of the first things I say in an interview is that we're not interested in taking names. I hold up the MEDA form and show them there is no place to record a name on it. The only name that goes on here is my name, so we can tell who conducted the interview." United has also integrated the MEDA philosophy and investigation methods into the human factors training program for all maintenance employees.

AEROLINEA DE COLOMBIA (AVIANCA)
Jose Ramos, manager of reliability, said, "MEDA unifies error investigations involving multiple organizations with overlapping responsibilities. The MEDA process allows organizations such as maintenance operations, quality control, engineering, reliability, and human factors to work cooperatively and share their findings, recommendations, and follow-up analysis across organizational lines."

According to HAECO's Peter Hayes, manager of quality assurance, "Our internal quality assurance audit process was based on the regulatory requirement to audit the entire maintenance system within a 12-month period. It kept turning up the same results. The MEDA investigation process and findings are helping us aim our audits at the maintenance system where compliance with QA standards is at risk." HAECO has reported an overall reduction in the occurrence of maintenance errors.