Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SKEMAS (Share Knowledge for Effective Management of Aviation Safety)
Reporting period: 2014-11-01 to 2015-04-30
The SKEMAS project addresses any type of aviation organisation, irrespective of size, budget and peculiarities. It aims to offer access to information and data contained in a shared database. This makes up for the lack of historical data and experience typical of SMEs and supports larger organisations that, for their culture and/or size, possess a significant amount of data, but are still interested in comparing their safety and operational performances with similar companies. In the SKEMAS project, the area of “safety” is correlated to “quality” and “fatigue risk management”, with the aim of embracing, in a unique tool, shared data and information relevant for these three areas. This simplifies the management of the mandatory activities of analysis and reporting to the Civil Aviation Authorities, reducing costs and promoting the development of knowledge and experience for organisations. The SKEMAS tool aims to offer such a service using modern Web-based solutions at a moderate cost, exploiting the richness of shared data.
This project tackled initially the issues associated with the technical implementation of SKEMAS, considering the European legislative requirements, the feasibility of a confidential database and the potential advantages in terms of safety offered to its users, especially SMEs. The project then focused on the financial sustainability of the action by developing an accurate business plan for the implementation of the idea throughout Europe. Feedbacks received from large organisations showed that the concept of a shared database is of high interest not only to SMEs and not only restricted to safety. Consequently, the expansion of the product to the areas of quality and fatigue became a concrete solution, providing a supplementary and innovative value to the project.
An important enlargement of the company has been planned in terms of personnel and locations. Therefore the application of funding via the SME instrument phase 2 has been identified as the obvious follow up. The feasibility study has demonstrated the validity of the idea proposed in SKEMAS and the concrete possibility of its technical implementation, with important improvements to safety, quality and fatigue risk management in aviation transportation. This represents a significant benefit for involved organisations and contributes to the vital aspect of aviation safety improvement, constantly demanded by the general public and stakeholders.