On the Design of Flight-Deck Procedures - Intelligent Systems ...

influenced by the individual philosophies of the top decision makers. It is also influenced by thecompany's culture, a term that has come into favor in recent years to explain broad-scale differencesbetween corporations. The corporate culture permeates the company, and a philosophy of flightoperations emerges. For a discussion on the development and implementation of a company-statedphilosophy, see Howard (1990).Although most airline managers, when asked, cannot clearly state their philosophy, such philosophies ofoperation do indeed exist within airlines. They can be inferred from procedures, policies, training,punitive actions, etc. For example, one company that we surveyed had a flight operation philosophy ofgranting great discretion (they called it “wide road”) to the individual pilot. Pilots were schooled underthe concept that they were both qualified and trained to perform all tasks. Consistent with thisphilosophy, the company allowed the first officer to call for as well as conduct (when he or she is thepilot flying) the rejected takeoff (RTO) -- a maneuver which is the captain's absolute prerogative at mostcarriers.The emergence of flight-deck automation as an operational problem has recently generated an interest inthe philosophy of operations, partly due to lack of agreement about how and when automatic features areto be used, and who may make that decision (Wiener, 1989). This has led one carrier, Delta Air Lines,to develop a one-page formal statement of automation philosophy (see Appendix 2). This philosophy isdiscussed in Wiener, Chidester, Kanki, Palmer, Curry, and Gregorich (1991). To the best of ourknowledge, this is the first case where an airline management actually wrote out its philosophy and theconsequences of the philosophy on doing business, and distributed copies to its pilots.2.3 POLICYThe philosophy of operations, in combination with economic factors, public relations campaigns, newgenerations of aircraft, and major organizational changes, generates policies. Policies are broadspecifications of the manner in which management expects things to be done (training, flying,maintenance, exercise of authority, personal conduct, etc.). Procedures, then, should be designed to beas much as possible consistent with the policies (which, in turn, should be consistent with thephilosophy). Figure 2 depicts this framework.PHILOSOPHYPoliciesProcedureProcedureProcedureSub-TasksSub-TasksSub-TasksFigure 2. The Three P's6