Nigerian Aviation
Sector: Why Not a ‘TQM’ Approach?
By Mohammed Zayyad <zaymohd@yahoo.com>
Sept 28, 2006
For
nearly two decades, Nigerian aviation industry, both civilian and
military, had witnessed a number of unfortunate calamities; in
September 1992, a Hercules C-130 military plane crashed in
Ejigbo, Lagos, five minutes after take-off, in which 192 middle
ranking and senior military officers perished, in November 1996,
142 people died when an ADC Boeing 727 plane plunged into a lagoon
near Lagos, in May 2002, an EAS Airline plane crashed in kano
killing 148 people, most of them non–passengers
on the ground, on 23 October 2005 a Belleview airline crashed
immediately after takeoff, killing all on board, and on
December 11, of same year, many lives of young school children
were lost, when a Sosolioso airline – Flight 1145 crashed in Port
Harcourt and recently on September 19, 2006, a military plane,
Dornier 228 crashed at Mbakumu, Benue State, claiming the lives
of 13 senior military officers. Regrettably, despite the pains,
agonies, grieve and lost of lives associated with air mishaps, the
usual way Nigerian government attends to such issue only stops at
- declaration of days national mourning, inter-religion services
and inauguration of task forces or panels of investigation; after
that, all is well, until another disaster happens!
Has
time not yet come for us to completely deviate from our usual
ad-hoc approach to aviation safety concerns and embrace modern
management practice? Few months ago, this writer, wrote an
article with a title, ‘benchmarking our aviation industry’ which
was published on this site and leadership newspapers of 15th
day of January, 2006; the content of the article can best be
sum-up as a clarion call for us to copy from others. For us to
copy from others, we must know our areas of lapses, identify and
define the problems, and also search for the best alternative
solution among the several solutions. As customary, the federal of
Government Nigeria has directed a full-scale investigation into
the 19 September Dornier 228 military plane crash. The
inauguration of an investigative panel is a welcome step, but no
successive Governments ever published or acted on the conclusions
and recommendations of previous public enquiries. The
recommendations, findings and conclusions of the panel of
investigations would not surpass the already known typical
problems of the Nigerian aviation sector : Infrastructural decay,
inefficiency and attitude, coupled with outdated navigational
equipment, poor airport facilities, old aircrafts, disjointed
structures , inadequate training and re-training programmes for
personnel, poor funding, security lapses ,absent of innovations
and continuous improvements in the system, official negligence,
poor motivational support and the ‘fiend’’, corruption,
these are the malaise surrounding the Nigerian aviation industry.
The idea of a Total Quality
Management (TQM) approach in reforming our aviation industry is an
attempt at suggesting a Management Science or simply an
Operational Research technique in proffering a solution to the
protracted decay in the aviation industry, or simply, this is an
attempt at offering another ‘outsider’ alternative solution
from numerous best solutions that expert in the aviation industry
would put forward to the decision makers in the industry.
Total Quality Management (TQM)
is an effective system for integrating the quality development;
quality maintenance and quality improvement efforts of various
aspects in a system, so as to enable services at the most
economical level and derive full satisfaction. This writer had
once wrote in an article titled ‘re-branding
Nigeria’ where the writer criticized the so much reliance on the
use ‘holistic approach’ in Nigeria in conceiving systems, but was
fast to emphasized that, Holistic Approach is
excellent in solving problems, TQM is something similar to
Holistic Approach. The technique tries to encompass every aspect
of a system, in solving a particular problem that may occur in the
system, TQM is another branch of system thinking that imply
effective way of enhancement of facilities, services and human
development. It does not purport to provide all answers; it simply
provides access to fundamental principles, with supporting
information, to develop understanding to support the development
of strategies to address situations, not just any strategy, but
strategies which have a very high probability of working when
applied.
Our aviation industry is at crossed
road, or indeed it is unwell, therefore numerous solutions from
diverse faculties are needed to cure the industry from this
‘man- made’ conundrum. Political leaders and indeed
decision makers in our aviation sector most wake-up to the need
of: Getting things right first, meeting the needs and
expectation of the passengers, covering all part of the industry,
developing system and procedure, which support quality and
improvement, developing continues process of improvement,
including every person in the industry and examining all cost
which are related to quality.
Getting things
right first, is the most critical and imperative thing to be
adhered to. All stakeholders in the industry have to be sure all
things are, as they are supposed to be, but the sanctity of
flight crew, people in the tower and regulating agencies is
central. Pilots and the flight engineers know more than anybody
the health status of a plane and the crucial decision of to fly an
aircraft are in their hands- pilots in particular. Regulating
agencies should also placed more weight not only in enforcing
airlines to maintain standard and obey rules but regular medical
examination of crew, especially before flight test for alcohols
and other substance; crew are always in the confidence of the
passengers but crews do some times neglect the lives of the
passengers; in 1972 Eastern Airline Flight-401 crashed mainly due
to failure of the pilot to properly monitor the flight instrument,
likewise in 1972 Prinair Flight 191 crashed due to pilot landing
error and in 1958 the Munich air disaster was due to pilot
take-off error. Though this writer is not aware of any indictment
of pilots or any crew member in Nigeria due to negligence on their
part, but time has come for greater attention to be placed on
airline crews, in 1990 Northwest Airlines crew members were
sentenced to jail term for flying from Fargo, North Dakota to
Minneapolis–St Paul international airport while drunk, in 2001,
the same Northwest fired a pilot in July 2002, who failed a
breathalyzer test after flying from San Antonio, Texas to St-Paul
Airport. The provision of up-to-date navigational aids is an
integral part of safety in aviation, today ground–based
navigational aid are rapidly being displaced by satellite-based
aids like GPS, which make it possible for aircrews to knows their
position with great precision anywhere in the world and with the
arrival of WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) the GPS has become
more accurate for both vertical and horizontal use.
Airline companies have much role to
play in meeting the needs and expectation of passengers ;
passengers are the bedrock for success in the aviation industry,
the more people that fly, the additional returns accruable to the
airlines, and at the same time more revenues to the authorities,
therefore meeting the expectation of passengers is both the
responsibility of airlines and regulating agencies; user friendly
online services (booking, flight schedules etc), attractive fare,
superb services on board, and after landing customer care. While
authorities can play a complementary role, by providing facilities
for passengers’ welfare in airport, for instance in 2005 Dubai
international Airport was committed to a major expansion plan of
4.1 billion dollars, including
the construction of a flower center that cost the airport 50
million dollars.
For us to achieve a meaningful
overhauling of the aviation industry, every aspect of industry
most be make to work as it should be; decision makers in the
industry most always ask the pertinent question ‘is what we
have what ought to be’. From the physical condition of
aircrafts, conditions of Run Ways, grades of navigational aids,
security of passengers and facilities, fire-fighting facilities
to psychological condition of crew and personnel, every aspect of
the industry is equally important.
Developing system and procedure, which
support quality and improvement, this is where IT plays a
significant role, with the current globalization trends and
changing passenger behaviour; unswerving modern and easy to up
date, improvements, are vital in the industry. Once a decline in
quality and improvement is noticed, there most be increased
emphasis on developing new system and procedures, this is where
science will take over ad-hoc decision-making.
A number of factors appear to
influence the eventual success of performance improvement, a
quality strategy not properly thought through will lead to
difficulties, all the task forces and investigative panels
formed by the federal after every air disaster Nigeria witnessed,
most have made a number of findings and provided some
recommendation to both Airlines and the regulating agencies, but
these cannot go on to reform the industry, except a mechanism is
put in place that would provide a continues improvement for both
technical and managerial skill. Daily Trust newspapers of Feb. 13,
2006 reported that the presidential task force on aviation reform,
which was formed by the federal government after the December 11,
2005, Sosolioso air crash, has identified the imposition of
non–professionals at management position in the aviation industry,
this have indicates the need of a vigorous pursue of
standardization of jobs, detailed and careful analysis of tasks
and functions. Thus, to achieve these, work have to broken down
into its element, which will be then distributed between several
workers each of whom perform one job, this bring us to the need of
re-training program, knowledge updating, seminars and workshop for
people in the aviation industry.
For the current attempt at reforming
the aviation industry to generate a fruitful pull-off and make
meaningful impact on the economy, the reform most covers all part
of the industry. For the reform to be effective, every single
part of the aviation industry, each department, each activity,
each person and each level must work together, because each person
and each activity affects another. This can be achieved by putting
in place a quality strategy, however, it is necessary to provide
the goal and guide which help to keep any new program in an
appropriate direction, that would relate to the needs of the
industry in future; for instance managers should always keep in
their minds the 8/20 perato principle.
To develop, maintain and control
efficiency in the aviation industry is like in any other sector-
there is a price to pay, the cost is not small, therefore raising
fund is a major factor in the Nigerian aviation sector, the calls
for merger, technical partnership and searching for FDI (foreign
direct investments) is a step in the right direction.
The investigative panel on the
September 19, Dornier 228 crash, would certainly come out with far
reaching recommendations as hitherto done by similar bodies , but
decision makers most as a matter of urgency make the ‘real
problem owners in the industry’- airline companies, regulating
agencies, labor union, and even concern passengers part of the
committee to implement the recommendations; and the implementers
need: top political leaders support, inter–agency cooperation, a
clear division of task and responsibilities between regulating
agencies, the use of scientific selection of the person to do a
new design, continuous training of workers to perform job in a way
specified and a steering group that would serve as a independent
voice apart from that of the regulating agencies, nevertheless,
all stake holders in the Nigerian aviation industry most keep in
mind that, attitudinal change is central to any meaningful
reform.
Zayyad I. Muhammad writes from Jimeta,
Nigeria
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