Employee Shortages Challenge Aviation’s Return to Stability
Labor shortages are mentioned almost everywhere as one of the most pressing issues facing aviation today. The COVID pandemic universally forced companies to lay off workers in record numbers. Due to the massive reduction in people flying,and the resulting lack of revenue, industry operations sank to an all time low.
Thousands of aircraft sat unattended for maintenance, and undelivered to clients. The majority of these layoffs were pilots and technicians, many of whom also left to pursue other careers during this period, bankrupting organizations of the ability to maintain and utilize their fleets.
With their workforce reduced by over a third, the industry now faces an almost 50% increase in domestic flight in 2022, simultaneously a dizzying challenge and much awaited opportunity. Training and learning efficiency will be major KPIs for recovery, and effective technologies could be the key to an effective strategy.
The news is, in fact, still fairly grim, however. According to sources , the average age of FAA certified mechanics is over 60, and approximately 80% are coming up to retirement age in the next 5- 6 years, compounding the problem going forward. Changes to the global fleet, new narrowbody aircraft and widebody planes converted to cargo roles, have made clear the need for technical procedures and training of new hires and senior technicians not yet educated on the newer aircraft operation and maintenance procedures.
A supply chain disruption, possibly the greatest in decades, has hit aviation hard, making the task of keeping planes airworthy a difficult job. As MRO techs and airline mechanics struggle to meet these issues at home and on remote client sites, the organizational need for efficient technologies addressing training, new operational/procedural knowledge, and internal /external collaboration on demand, is highly apparent.
Newly onboarded members need to be trained rapidly and thoroughly on existing and new practices. Senior technicians need training to understand the new specifications native to newer and converted models.Pilots are suffering much the same fate, as the ever increasing number of flights calls out for them to meet the increasing flight demands, while absorbing the details of flying newer aircrafts. These tasks are indispensable in addressing work performance on a daily basis.
Information, the key element exchange in every aspect of aviation, needs to be provided to these roles. Streamlining growth, and enhancing organizational knowledge as a whole,will aid the return to stable revenues. Thankfully, technologies exist to do just that. Technical publications solutions are the answer
Technical Publications and IETM Solutions – Optimizing Training
The implementation of technical publications solutions has been proven to mitigate and overcome a host of traditional issues in aviation. With new challenges approaching, deploying robust, extendable IETMs, allowing every member of an organization to access mission- critical data, is now highly important. Collaborating by introducing new and valuable content from all company members and partners will be a base strategy to meet the resurgence of passenger flights.
Seeing is learning
The NIVOMAX Platform provides users an excellent UI to assist learning. The adaptable user interface of the NIVOMAX Viewer IETM changes intuitively, and can be altered to display technical publications content in ways that enhance the ability to absorb information and perform tasks easier. By changing size, the UI allows multiple manuals or publications to be viewed simultaneously. Collapsing regions maintain a clear display of data, allowing users to achieve the comfort level they prefer. Enhancing their ability to learn and perform tasks,whether they be existing or newly introduced techniques, leads to increased work output and comprehension, simultaneously.
The NIVOMAX Viewer contains tools and extensions designed to footnote, save, and share critical information.Using the Text Annotation and Draw features,technical publications content can be marked up with both freehand and text comments then saved. This allows an organization’s most knowledgeable technical members to assist trainees by imparting knowledge gathered over decades, which may never have been documented.
Getting The Best From The Experts
Content necessary to effectively assist trainees and existing staff can be obtained through the NIVOMAX Viewer Feedback System Extension. Utilizing an OEM’s wealth of resources makes obtaining valuable content much simpler. Originating from the OEM, the information can be trusted to be correct and error free, a problem often encountered in technical content production. The foundations of efficient new practices can be easily acquired from a reliable source, and integrated into existing procedures. Specifications on new parts and/or new maintenance procedures can be implemented quickly to address the need for quick turnaround and proper oversight.
The NIVOMAX Builder is capable of creating libraries of any kind from predefined content. By compiling information obtained from valued internal assets and OEM’s, libraries can be authored and specifically focused on the programs needed to optimize the knowledge of old and new internals alike, creating a powerful synergy. If clients use an S1000D standard as well, this information will be even simpler to organize, transform, and distribute according to their current and future requirements.
A Teaching Tool for Work And The Classroom
Through the extensibility of the NIVOMAX Viewer, the “classroom” is portable. Access to technical publications, specifically libraries with new OEM vetted practices, and newly authored procedures for training new and existing hires, allows on site access by internal teams of different levels of experience. Mentoring is a powerful tool to increase knowledge transfer, collaboration and effective learning. Teamwork synergies between recruits and veterans, while implementing the new practices in an applied scenario, such as mobile sites, boost performance and fosters team building.
Introducing Optimized Content Formats
Training efficiency can also be increased by the type of content supplied to users.Video has been identified as one of the most effective ways to assist learning. In fact , according to sources, the brain processes video content 60,000 times faster than text. People remember on average 10% of text, 65% of visual, and a staggering 95% of video content. The NIVOMAX Suite can be used to build libraries containing videos specific to streamlining training programs and assisting workflows. Through the NIVOMAX Builder and the ability of the NIVOMAX Viewer to display media natively, these libraries can be used as in house training programs, and on site, improving overall work performance KPIs.
Training will be challenging in 2022. All organizations depend on the performance of their people to achieve success, and aviation currently requires innovative ways to enhance performance to meet the growing opportunity as passengers begin to fly again. With aircraft still grounded, NIVOMAX can ensure your staff is in full flight when facing today’s challenges.
Looking for Technical Publications Solutions?
NIVOMAX provides robust capabilities to assist your organization’s growth. If you have questions about how to implement and deploy efficient tech pubs solutions that improve work performance, talk to SYNAXIOM. With over a decade of experience as trusted advisors for aviation companies, we can work with you to achieve the return on investment you are searching for.