Research projects, training classes, speeches at every conference, FAA Advisory Circulars, new rules for flight crews, and multiple articles in AMT Magazine are examples of efforts to reduce the risk associated with worker fatigue. No one, including Dr. Bill, is ready to step up and say “Mission Accomplished.” This article is another attempt to address the fatigue risk challenge. This article minimizes sentences and paragraphs. There are no references! Just use the checklists of actions to help manage your organizational and personal fatigue risk. Want details? (See November/December 2016 AMT Magazine.)
Corporate Actions
Acknowledge corporate fiduciary responsibility to provide safe air transportation
Identify and empower a fatigue risk manager in appropriate departments
Send fatigue risk managers to training
Establish and promote a fatigue risk management system (FRMS)
Ensure organizational buy-in to reduce fatigue-related risk
Provide fatigue awareness training to everyone in the organization
Ensure that the SMS investigates worker fatigue as a root cause factor in every event
Assign values to losses and production inefficiency caused by fatigue
Document fatigue issues in all worker injury reports
Set reasonable schedules for maximum hours per day for work
Set reasonable schedules to accommodate eight hours/day of worker sleep
Establish a reasonable plan where a worker can call in “too fatigued to work”
Address the risk associated with extended days for road trips or AOG situations
Automatically flag time records with frequent extended hours/day and continuous days/week/month
Recognize that continuous excessive overtime threatens safe product and worker safety
Provide loaner sleep monitor technology to help workers understand their sleep schedules
Provide screen for sleep apnea
Worker Actions
Recognize that fatigue risk management is a shared personal-organizational responsibility
Recognize that long work hours and night time schedules have trade-offs with normal life activities
Train family/friends to accommodate your commitment to be fit for duty
Commit to eight hours of daily sleep
Factor commute time into your fitness for duty plans
Keep a two-week sleep diary using technology (like Fitbit) or paper
Learn from the employer-provided fatigue awareness training
Ensure that you have a comfortable, quiet, and dark area for optimal sleep
Avoid caffeine or excessive alcohol before sleeping
Consider fatigue issues when reporting any hazards
Discuss fatigue issues with co-workers
Commit to eight hours of daily sleep (repeated on purpose)
Government Actions
Acknowledge that flight/worker safety and commercial/legal factors should drive fatigue risk management system (FRMS)
Ask for fatigue data from SMS
Provide hours of duty guidelines for those without FRMS programs
Create educational and other FRMS support materials
Conduct applied research and development to improve and validate FRMS interventions
