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Introducing TEM (threat and error management)

OK; I have edited the thread title again to add the “and”, without which it (threat error management – what is a “threat error”??) made no sense.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

what_next wrote:

So I can consider myself lucky because I renewed my FI ratings last week without ever having come across TEM. And I am pretty much certain that my examiner hasn’t either

Funny you should say that but recently at one FI initial test the FIE stopped the briefing to ask the candidate what an earth TEM was

what_next wrote:

Maybe it helps to pick an examiner (as I did) who got his own ratings and qualifications in a era when common sense was still ruling the world? These guys will fail you for poor flying and practical instructing skills but never for poor bla-bla.

We seem to share the impression, that plain and simple general airmenship got overthought and pressed in abbreviations such as TEM, FORDEC, I’MSAFE, GUMPS, CIGAR, FLARE, BLITTS, LCA, MPG, CCCC, FACTS, MIDGET, TTTTT, WIRETAP, APTATEN, HAMSACC and whatever I missed looking up this stuff. Personally, I know more people who can’t remember them, mix up letters, meanings and situations where to apply which mnemonic and only can remember by imagining the flow associated or the basic judgement for which the mnemonic should remind them of. There might be brains out there for which these work better than anything else, but I have yet to meet one.

mh
Aufwind GmbH
EKPB, Germany

There might be brains out there for which these work better than anything else, but I have yet to meet one.

Me too. This crap generation is however a normal byproduct of human enterprise. For every person engaged in a productive activity there are several who try to find ways to formalise it. Sometimes it gets ridiculous e.g.
Personnel manager → Human resources manager → Head of Talent Acquisition

However, back to TEM… nobody has yet posted what exactly TEM involves. We now know the meaning of the name, but what is the process and the purported advantages?

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

For every person engaged in a productive activity there are several who try to find ways to formalise it.

This really is one of the worst diseases of our time. And also a reason why I chose to make flying my second profession instead of engineering (the theoretical variant, not the one where people work on engines with hand tools). During my first decade on the job (I was mainly involved in scientific/technical/industrial software development, a lot of it for the manufacturer of the best airliners in the world…) a 10 hour working day would consist of 7 hours of discussions/brainstorming/planning/developing software, 2 hours testing and debugging, 1/2 hour documenting and 1/2 hour of accouting. After they introduced ISO 9000, 10 hours of work would change to this: 2 hours scheduled meetings and discussions to be meticulously protocolled by the last one who entered the room. One hour of informal brainstorming/deleopment. Three hours debugging and testing according to some pre-established test schedule. Three hours documentation, editing of manuals, checking for compliance, etc. One full hour of accounting.
Has the quality of the products improved? Just look at the A400M, the first aircraft completely developed by Airbus after ISO 9000 was established. Over ten years delay in the programme. Cost budget busted by a factor of three to four. Largest quality issues with any aircraft this company has ever built. First occurrence ever in over 100 years of aviation that four engines have simultaneosly shut themselves down (leading to the crash of the aircraft) for no reason but an undetected software fault. Because no test against this fault was included in the ISO 9000 compliant test schedule…

So I fled from the world of engineering and switched over to practical aviation. And now they want to ruin my alternative career in the same way by introducing mindless crap like “TEM”? I will oppose this with all my strength!

Last Edited by what_next at 22 Feb 14:39
EDDS - Stuttgart

what_next wrote:

Just look at the A400M, the first aircraft completely developed by Airbus after ISO 9000 was established.

I don’t think ISO9000 was the driver of these delays over political induced constant requirement changes at later development stages and moreover political choice of system developers and manufacturers over engineering preferable choices. It’s the same method of politics-driven technical decision making that had led to the R101 disaster, as elaborated by Nevil Shute in Slide Rule. Process certification itself must not be confused with the unnecessary VISIOfication of common sense and not with the political manipulation of technical projects. One of our Companies is certified for the production of medical supplies (DIN EN ISO 13485) and we did this largely without any of your claimed overhead. So it depends on how you implement these certification specs. I know companies who don’t even offer the option of non-certified parts, because the real price difference is 10 cents for a printed certificate.

what_next wrote:

First occurrence ever in over 100 years of aviation that four engines have simultaneosly shut themselves down (leading to the crash of the aircraft) for no reason but an undetected software fault. Because no test against this fault was included in the ISO 9000 compliant test schedule…

Did you read Fate Is The Hunter? Anyways, ISO 9000 doesn’t mandate software checks and if that failure mode hasn’t been identified by the engineers, it is hardly the fault of process certification, but an error made on the engineering side, or in this case on the political side not to utilise experience and knowledge that was already available, and make a political decision instead of the choice of contractors.

Still, this hasn’t to do anything with mnemonics in aviation.

mh
Aufwind GmbH
EKPB, Germany

mh wrote:

Still, this hasn’t to do anything with mnemonics in aviation.

Sure. But “TEM” is not a mnemonic in itself, but a formalised (or would be formalised) way of doing things that worked equally well without this kind of formalisation. Or do people really think that before the introduction of TEM, before taking off for a flying lesson inside a busy airspace, an instructor would have told his student: “Just close your eyes and fly through all that, we won’t hit anything!”?

mh wrote:

…ISO 9000 doesn’t mandate software checks …

ISO 9000 is the mother of all standardised quality manangement systems. So to say. And of course it also introduced formalised quality management (= checks) into software development. Of course software was checked before ISO 9000, otherwise they would never have landed on the moon. But back then it was done in a way that preserved creativity and – to a degree – joy about one’s job to the personnel involved. I know because I did it before and after ISO 9000.
And to aviation it brought things like JAR OPS&FCL and later EASA OPS&FCL – and obviously our TEM belongs to the latter category.

EDDS - Stuttgart

what_next wrote:

And to aviation it brought things like JAR OPS&FCL and later EASA OPS&FCL

That’s just naming. Flight school manuals and standardisation, flight crew licensing and operations regulations have already been in place when ISO9000 was still named BS 5750 by the British. And to be frank, JAA and EASA have reduced licensing bureaucracy in Germany a lot. Do you remember sending validated copies of some forms with your Beiblatt to the competent authority and then waiting for two weeks to get your license back? Or the necessity to get an Einweisung by an Einweisungsberechtigter if you wanted to fly a PA28 and only have flown Cessna 172s before? You needed such an Einweisung even when going from 7GCBC to Super Cub. That all predated ISO9000.

Plus, a high level of standardisation and process control dramatically reduced airline accident and fatality rates over the years.

But I agree, we don’t need to find fancy names or abbreviations for common sense and normal airmenship.

mh
Aufwind GmbH
EKPB, Germany

To get back on topic, what is TEM?

Maybe @bathman or @jojo will come back and post some actual examples.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

To get back on topic, what is TEM?

If you want to do some reading before they reply, download this document: https://www.easa.europa.eu/system/files/dfu/AMC%20and%20GM%20to%20Part-FCL.pdf and scroll down to page 540. There are like 10 pages on the subject with examples.

EDDS - Stuttgart
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