Coffee Conversations: The Simple Leadership Secret of High Performance Workplaces by Donovan PhD Grant & Garland Shane

Author:Donovan PhD, Grant & Garland, Shane [Donovan PhD, Grant]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Booksurge
Published: 2012-10-12T16:00:00+00:00

Shane: Fixing a 30 Year Old Problem

One of the issues that came up regularly in our coffee conversations at Sydney Airport was the number of injuries happening to staff loading wide body aircraft.

To make more money, airlines take the space not used by passenger baggage and add cargo and mail. The introduction of wide body aircraft allowed the pre-loading of bags, cargo and mail into containers and cut down turnaround times by up to 50 percent but there was one big problem.

The in-hold systems in these aircraft were a combination of ball mats in doorways and drive wheels that drive the units forward or backwards. When they worked they were brilliant because only one operator was needed to load a hold. However, when not operating properly, they required workers to push and pull containers and pallets weighing up to 4000 kilos. All this while standing on an aircraft floor made up of ribs that were a few centimetres wide and 600mm apart and workers at all airports sustained injuries by falling between the ribs.

Some would lose skin from their ankles to their knees but the worst injuries were spinal. The height in the holds was 1600 mm, which required most workers to bend over and push or pull very heavy units compressing their spinal cords. The workers compensation bills at Sydney were horrendous and the LTIFR hovered around 150. We injured a worker every day!

A team consisting of workers, leading hands and the manager, Peter Breuer, were asked to investigate the issue and recommend how to fix what was really an airplane design problem.

The team found the roller balls on the mats were placed in the wrong position and would not “pick up” the weight of units. They also discovered that damaged roller balls could not be replaced without taking the whole mat out, which could only be done during a major maintenance check. Further, the roller balls in 747 aircraft were inferior and could only handle units up to 2 tonne and the drive systems used easily worn rubber wheels that could only be changed once a year.

The investigation team recommended that all floors should be filled in and the balls on the roller beds be upgraded and put in the correct positions. They also suggested that damaged balls should be easily replaced, tyres be put in the correct position and regularly pumped, and that Power Drive Units should be replaceable within five minutes.

The Senior Engineering Manager was invited to hear the ideas but was not very helpful to say the least. A project engineer turned up at the next meeting and the difference was amazing. A different person, with a very a positive attitude and everything was possible .

To cut a long story short, we formed a dedicated team and the recommended changes went all the way to the aircraft manufacturer, Boeing, where they were incorporated into all new aircraft.

The outcomes of the teams work included all 747 floors being filled in, all ball mats replaced with heavier duty balls in the right places and all new aircraft having upgraded power drive units.

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