Assessment of Staffing Needs of Systems Specialists in Aviation (2013) / Chapter Skim
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2 Work Environment Considerations for Airway Transportation Systems Specialists
2 Work Environment Considerations for Airway Transportation Systems Specialists
Pages 19-40
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From page 19... ...
and support five types of work sites within Technical Operations: Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCCs) , Terminal Radar 19
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To accomplish this responsibility, ATSS personnel perform two major functions: (1) scheduled preventive maintenance activities, including inspections to ensure continued certification of equipment as well as the installation and certification of new equipment; and (2)
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From page 21... ...
As a result, most ATSS personnel specialize in one or more of the five recognized disciplines in the series explained in the following quotations from the FAA National Airspace Capital Investment Plan (FAA, 2011b) and from a recent job posting on the Electronic Technicians Association website: Communication: "Communication between pilots and controllers is an essential element of air traffic control.
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From page 22... ...
Although safe and effective operation of the NAS requires staffing in all of the above disciplines nationwide, the type of organization in which an ATSS works affects the specific skills required of that individual ATSS.4 Although the ATSS job description is broad-based, in actual practice individuals may operate within the primary discipline of their work site, even if the member has multiple certifications. When developing a staffing model to describe required staff size or allocating staff, care should be taken 4RichMcCormick, director, Labor Analysis, FAA.
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From page 23... ...
Many Technical Operations work sites are organized and staffed by facility function and discipline. For example, ATSS personnel in SSCs serving TRACON facilities and ARTCCs maintain equipment that is associated with the particular facility and almost entirely housed within the compound of that facility.
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While there are very predictable factors associated with the work requirements for any one ATSS employee at a given location (for example, preventive maintenance schedules are well-defined) , there are also events that occur unpredictably (for example, corrective maintenance required by equipment failure)
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. Considering all of these factors, the committee believes that challenges will exist in staffing individual locations with the right mix of certified personnel in the proper disciplines, even if a perfect staffing model for the ATSS job series as a whole could be created.
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Some ATSS personnel are frustrated by the requirement to train new employees if limited staffing levels require that they delay their NAS-related work.12 A third problem area is that, because new hires may require 4 to 18 months to become certified in a single discipline, these new hires will not be one-for-one substitutes for certified staff and will not be able to contribute as much to accomplishing the maintenance workload as certified staff. Although noncertified ATSS personnel can work on certain components to alleviate some of the workload pressures of those who are certified, before the equipment returns to service a certified specialist must review the work performed and certify the equipment.
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From page 27... ...
The committee's summary of ATSS stakeholder perspectives is categorized around the following issues: • Training issues • Training impacts on workload • Watch schedules and shift assignments • Equipment issues • Other issues Training Issues Training progression for an ATSS is not a continuous, uninterrupted process that leads to certification in a predictable fashion, in part because staffing levels play a major role in the availability of a technician (and the relevant supervisory personnel) to be released for resident training at the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City.
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From page 28... ...
In addition, the time a journeyman technician uses to provide formal OJT or proctor certification exams for technicians-in-training can conflict with higher priority work on NAS equipment. This conflict delays both completion of training and certification of the new employee, as well as scheduled preventive maintenance.22 Thus, the training phase affects workload in two ways: by decreasing the effective number of certified technicians at a facility and by increasing the workload of certified technicians who maintain the NAS.
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technician at that facility to attend training in Oklahoma City. The absence of one technician for the several weeks required to complete this training could significantly affect the staffing levels and watch coverage requirement.
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In addition to the regular preventive maintenance on that equipment, ESU technicians must be available to restore the Critical Power Distribution System without delay if it goes down.29 Although in theory 7 ESU technicians could staff a facility with 24/7 coverage requirements, the added requirement that 2 technicians must work on some equipment increases the required minimum number of staff in that discipline to 14, if certified managers are not available to work in situations requiring two workers. Travel time to remote facilities, which can be up to 200 miles distant, can further limit the availability of a technician to perform scheduled maintenance and potentially increase the time a system remains out of service.
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From page 31... ...
The webpage did not require the respondents to include their job title, but most indicated that they worked for the FAA or a specific Technical Operations facility. The committee received 168 responses through this webpage for stakeholder input, the vast majority of which were posted by ATSS employees.
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From page 32... ...
An effective staffing model should go beyond documenting today's required ATSS staffing levels; instead, a robust and accessible staffing model should be capable of incorporating such additional inputs as they become available, not only with respect to NextGen but also with respect to inevitable continuing technological advances. Finding 2-1: Changes to the NAS such as NextGen and MON implementation and unspecified decommissioning policies all make the amount of work to be performed by ATSS personnel ambiguous and complicate the FAA's task in developing an appropriate staffing model for ATSS.
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. 39 The committee heard concerns expressed from both FAA management and technician representatives that maintaining ATSS staffing levels in high cost-of-living regions is a constant challenge.
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43 40ATSS personnel comment to committee during site visits to FAA facilities at Leesburg and Dulles, Virginia. 41Austin Aurandt, acting manager, program management team, Air Traffic Control Facilities Directorate, AJW-2, FAA, presentation titled "Future Facilities" Program Overview to the Committee on Staffing Needs of Systems Specialists in Aviation, December 6, 2012.
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From page 35... ...
with variables that are part of the system (such as number of overtime hours an ATSS employee works, travel time to remote locations, or level of air traffic)
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. In the 2006 report, the committee considered risk an important factor in exploring the parameters of a staffing model and establishing staffing levels.
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Both advanced deployment of RMM and the utilization of modern, integrated Computerized Maintenance Management Software (CMMS) can help optimize utilization of all ATSS maintenance 46Reliability centered maintenance concepts were honed in the aviation realm and have since spread dramatically through other maintenance-related fields.
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Balancing Budgetary Priorities When ATSS staffing levels are adequate to perform prescribed maintenance activities, risk to NAS safety is minimized. At the same time, staffing levels will, in part, be determined by the cost of labor and other budgetary priorities.
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From page 39... ...
Recommendation 2-2: In accordance with the principles of human-systems integration, the FAA should build a robust staffing model that takes into account all of the following aspects of the ATSS job series, in addition to the time that ATSS personnel spend on preventive and corrective maintenance tasks: • Training issues, time to schedule training, the time required to attend training, and the time of experienced ATSS personnel necessary to provide OJT • Travel time to and from work sites • Environmental challenges • Time dedicated to military reserve service or family and medical leave • Fatigue mitigation plans • Safety factors • LDR deficiencies and other data deficiencies
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From page 40... ...
Any staffing model for ATSS personnel that is intended to be accepted by appropriate stakeholders will need to address these concerns.
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