A grey relational analytical approach to safety performance assessment in an aviation industry of a developing country
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Safety in aviation impacts the overall success of the sector. It depends on the effectiveness and efficiency of safety management systems (SMSs), which contain diverse and complex elements. Thus, a quantitative methodology for aviation SMS in developing countries, capable of prioritising resources with incomplete information, is needed. Grey relational analysis (GRA) is the most appropriate tool for this situation. This study assessed an existing SMS and determined its critical elements in a developing country’s aviation industry. Questionnaires were framed from the SMS manual of the International Civil Aviation Organization and from previous literature. The robustness and the efficiency of the approach were tested with data obtained from airline operators in Nigeria. Assessment of SMSs was done among airline service providers ascertaining the important levels of SMS elements. GRA was then applied to this data to identify the most influential elements of an SMS. Several companies were examined. Company A needs for a focus on sharing safety information and sensitization techniques to enable SMSs to better permeate through all levels, making employees aware of their SMS roles and duties to pursue a better safety culture. Company B needs to focus on more in-depth safety information dissemination platforms and methods. Non-punitive reporting should be done and safety promotion, culture, training and education should be prioritised. Company A has a better safety record than B. Overall, from the grey model, 12 critical elements were found out of 22 revised SMS elements that affect SMS. The major critical component was the safety structure and regulation. This is needed to build long lasting and effective SMSs. The novelty of this work is its unique application of GRA for a developing country’s airline safety.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
References
Hale AR, Heming BHJ, Carthey J, Kirwan B. Modeling of safety management systems. Safety Sci. 1997;(26):121-40.
Gallagher C. Occupational health & safety management systems: System type and effectiveness [PhD. dissertation]. Melbourne: Deakin University; 2000.
Hsu YL. Airline safety management – the development of a proactive safety mechanism model for the evolution of safety management system [PhD dissertation]. England: Department of Air Transportation, Cranfield University; 2004.
Hsu YL. From reactive to proactive: using safety survey to assess effectiveness of airline SMS. J Aeronaut Astronaut Aviat. 2008;40: 41-8.
Uhuegho OK. Safety management system implementation in an approved maintenance organization: A case study of Nigerian Airline operators [MSc Thesis]. London: City University London; 2010.
McDonald N, Corrigan S, Daly C, Cromie S. Safety management systems and safety culture in aircraft maintenance organizations. Safety Sci. 2000;34: 151-76.
Cambon J, Guarnieri F, Groeneweg J. Towards a new tool for measuring safety management systems performance. In: Hollnagel E, Rigaud E, editors. 2nd Symposium on Resilience Engineering; 2006 Nov 8-10; Antibes-Juan-les-Pins, France. Paris: Mines Paris Les Presses; 2006. p. 53-62.
Institute for Work & Health. Effectiveness of occupational health & safety management aystems: A systematic review. Toronto: Institute for Work & Health; 2005.
Liou JH, Yen L, Tzeng GH. Building an effective safety management system for airlines. J Air Transport Manag. 2008;14:20-6.
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Safety management manual (Doc 9859-AN/460). Montreal: International Civil Aviation Organization; 2006.
Abeyratne RIR. The regulatory management of safety in air transport. J Air Transport Manag. 1998;4(1):25-37.
Kapp EA. The influence of supervisor leadership practices and perceived group safety climate on employee safety performance. Safety Sci. 2012;50(4):1119-24.
Badri A, Gbodossou A, Nadeau S. Occupational health and safety risks: Towards the integration into project management. Safety Sci. 2012;50(2):190-8.
Frick K. Worker influence on voluntary OHS management systems – a review of its ends and means. Safety Sci. 2011;49(7):974-87.
Frank HH. The relationship between the implementation of voluntary Five-Star occupational health and safety management system and the incidence of fatal and permanently disabling injury. Safety Sci. 2013;63:94-103.
Ayomoh MKO, Oke SA. A framework for measuring safety level for production environments. Safety Sci. 2006;44:221-39.
Ramli AA, Watada J, Witold P. Possibilistic regression analysis of influential factors for occupational health and safety management systems. Safety Sci. 2011;49(8-9):1110-7.
Xueyan S. Safety risk analysis in flight operations quality assurance. Syst Eng Procedia. 2012;5:81-6.
Diaz RI, Cabrera DD. Safety climate and attitude as evaluation measures of organizational safety. Accid Anal Prev. 1997;29(5):643-50.
ICAO. Safety Management Manual (Doc 9859 AN/474). 3rd ed. Montreal: ICAO; 2013.
Liou JH, Tzeng GH, Chang HC. Airline safety measurement using a hybrid model. J Air Transport Manag. 2007;13:243-9.
Hsu YL, Li WC, Chen KW. Structuring critical success factors of airline safety management system using a hybrid model. Transport Res E Logist Transport Rev. 2010;46:222-35.
Chang T, Wang T. 2009. Selecting initial training aircraft by utilizing grey relational analysis. The 2009 International Conference on e-Technology; 2009 Jan 8-10; Singapore. p. 1-14.
Kayacan E, Ulutas B, Kaynak O. Grey system theory-based models in time series prediction. Expert Syst Appl. 2010;37:1784-9.
Hui S, Yang F, Li Z, Liu Q, Dong J. Application of grey system theory to forecast the growth of larch. Int J Inform Syst Sci. 2009;5(3-4):522-7.
Tsai CH, Chang CL, Chen L. Applying grey relational analysis to the vendor evaluation model. Int J Comput Internet Manag. 2003;11(3):45-53.
Huang Y, Lin C. 2009. Constructing Grey Relational Analysis model evaluation of tourism competitiveness. J Inform Optim Sci. 2009;30(6):1129-38.
Lin CT, Lee TR, Kao CK, Wu J. Application of grey relational analysis to determine key factors for investment of overseas branch by logistics industry– U.S. market as an example. Int J Supply Oper Manage. 2014;12(1):14-29.
Wen KL. The quantitative research on the grey relational grade. J Grey Syst. 1999;2(2): 117-35.
Lin JL, Lin CL. The use of the orthogonal array with grey relational analysis to optimize the electrical discharge machining process with multiple performance characteristics. Int J Mach Tool Manufact. 2002;42:237-44.
Sarucan A, BaysalM. E, Kahraman C, Engin O. A hierarchy grey relational analysis for selecting the renewable electricity generation technologies. In: Ao SI, Gelman L, Hukins DWL, Hunter A, Korsunsky AM, editors. Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering 2011; 2011 Jul 6-8; London, UK. Hong Kong: Newswood Limited; 2011.
Yang CC, Chen BS. Supplier selection using combined analytical hierarchy process and grey relational analysis. J Manuf Tech Manag. 2006;17(7):926-41.
Song Q, Jamalipour A. 2004. Quality of service provisioning in wireless LAN/UMTS integrated systems using analytic hierarchy process and grey relational analysis. 2004 IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference Workshops; 2004 Nov 29 - Dec 3; Dallus, Texas. USA: IEEE; 2004. p. 220-4.
Wu C. On the application of grey relational analysis and RIDIT analysis to Likert scale surveys. Int Math Forum. 2007;2(14):675-87.
Gill GK, Shergill GS. Perceptions of safety management and safety culture in the aviation industry in New Zealand. J Air Transport Manag. 2004;10: 233-9.
Tervonen P, Haapasalo H, Niemelä M. Evolution of safety management and systems in a steel production organization. Open Manag J. 2009;2:17-37.
Uhuego OK, Gabriel OE, Bond S. Assessment of safety management system implementation in an approved maintenance organization: A case study of Nigeria operators. Res J Appl Sci Eng Tech. 2010;6(20):3879-87.
Onyegiri IE, Oke SA. An analytic hierarchical approach to building airline safety management systems. Erzincan Univ J Sci Tech. 2016;9(3):147-63.
Onyegiri IE, Oke SA. Applying decision trial and evaluation laboratory as a decision tool for effective safety management system in aviation transport. KKU EN J. 2016;43(4):166-71.
McIntyre GR. The application of system safety engineering and management techniques at the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Safety Sci. 2002;40:325-35.
Deng JL. Introduction to grey system theory. J Grey Syst.1989;1:1-24.
Roelen ALC, Klompstra MB. The challenges in defining aviation safety performance indicators. PSAM 11 and ESREL 2012; 2012 Jun 25-29; Helsinki, Finland. New York: Curran Associates. p. 1-10.