Description

Commercial pressure, sometimes alternatively described as production pressure, is often an unavoidable fact of life for an increasing number of aviation service providers and their front line personnel. Pressure, whether imposed from above or self-imposed because of a perception generated by the prevailing business culture, to put greater emphasis on efficiency, output, or continued production ahead of operational safety has been a causal factor in many catastrophic accidents in various industries.

Various organisational and systemic factors contribute to production pressures, such as poorly designed workload policies of the organisation, inadequate staffing, hierarchical systems, last minute or unsolicited changes in schedules, long work hours, and lack of an effective safety culture.

Sources of Production Pressure

Internal

• Management decisions
• Inadequate allocation of resources
• Poor planning

External

A variety of external factors may put pressure on the organisation and its personnel, such as: