Compliance Monitoring System¶
ACA’s compliance monitoring program involves the evaluation of our processes, policies or procedures to ensure compliance with applicable rules and regulations of CAAT, State and local laws. This will be accomplished by incorporating compliance monitoring when conducting quality audits and inspections of ACA departments and ACA’s contract service providers.
ACA’s compliance monitoring also involves daily compliance monitoring by all ACA employees. All operational employees are encouraged to perform daily compliance monitoring in their assigned duties. If an employee discovers a non-compliant area they should inform their immediate supervisor or file a non punitive written report (Non-compliance Report QAS-1 or a Suggestion Form).
Identifying non-compliant areas is an important step in preserving ACAs well being and can also help prevent accidents or incidents.
Compliance Monitoring Subject Guide¶
Note
the following compliance monitoring subject guide may also be used for guidance for audits and inspections.
Compliance Monitoring Topic Guide: For Operations¶
Compliance Monitoring Topic Guide: For Ground Handling, Mass Balance and Flight Crew¶
Compliance Monitoring Topic Guide: For In-Flight Service Representative and Other ACA Personnel¶
Compliance Monitoring Topic Guide: For documentation and Maintenance¶
Non-compliance Identification and Management¶
The objective of the non-compliance identification is to identify those areas of non-compliance which either currently exist and can cause an immediate threat to the stability of ACA or may pose potential threat to the stability of ACA in the future. A non-compliance can be considered a hidden error or threat that has some level of loss of investment that is associated with it. ACA’s QAS non-compliance process is based on the principle of cause and effect. All accidents and or occurrences have a root cause and do not occur by chance.
Given that a non-compliance may involve any situation or condition that has the potential to cause adverse consequences, the scope for safety concerns in aviation is wide. The following are some examples:
- Design factors, including equipment and task design;
- Procedures and operating practices, including their documentation and checklists, and their validation under actual operating conditions;
- Communications, including the medium, terminology and language;
- Personnel factors, such as company policies for recruitment, training and remuneration;
- Organizational factors, such as the compatibility of production and safety goals, the allocation of resources, operating pressures and ACA’s quality culture;
- Work environment factors, such as ambient noise and vibration, temperature, lighting and the regulatory oversight factors, including the applicability and enforceability of regulations; the certification of equipment, personnel and procedures; and the adequacy of surveillance audits and inspections.
All ACA employees are made aware during their initial and recurrent training of the State, Local and ACA’s overseeing Authority. All employees are encouraged to report all areas of non-compliance by filing a Non-compliance Report, Form QAS-1 or Suggestion Form.
Employee Reporting Rights¶
Personnel may anonymously report all non-compliance that they discover using Non-compliance Report, Form QAS-1 or a Suggestion Form. This reporting system facilitates the collection of data to assist in the identification of the “root causes,” so that appropriate measures (training, establishment or modification of procedures, etc.) can be implemented.
All ACA personnel are required to immediately report any non-compliance areas that they discover in the work place. Non-compliance Report, Form QAS-1s and Suggestion Forms are provided for this purpose.
Important
No employee will be disciplined or discharged for reporting. ANY non-compliant area that they discover.
Personnel who wish to remain anonymous by submitting a Non-compliance Report, Form QAS-1 directly to the Head of Quality via the internal ACA mail system without identifying themselves. The program allows for anonymous reporting. ACA takes all reports of unsafe conditions seriously. The Head of Quality will give prompt attention to all submitted QAS-1 reports and quality related Suggestion Forms.
Note
The Non-compliance Report Form, QAS-1 and Suggestion Forms may be printed off from the ACA employee website or may be supplied to employees by their department manager or supervisor.
Received Non-compliance Forms, QAS-1¶
Completed forms will be forwarded to the Head of Quality. The Head of Quality shall review all submitted reports and decide if the reported policy, process or procedures is compliant with applicable regulations and meets ACA’s operating standards. The Head of Quality may require more information and interview the employee or observe the employee to check for compliance. The Head of Quality may decide to conduct an audit or inspection if they feel that the reported non-compliance or suggestion is a threat to ACA stability or well being.
If the reported non-compliance does exist, the Head of Quality will immediately contact the Nominated Person overseeing the department and advise them of the non-compliance. The Nominated Person will stop department operations, if the non-compliance severity is estimated to be a value A or B for the Compliance or Estimated Non-compliance Severity Table below.
Note
The Head of Quality will immediately stop operations if they estimated the non-compliance value is an A or B.
All submitted Non-compliance Forms, QAS-1 will be reviewed by the Quality Assurance Committee. The Quality Assurance Committee will, consider each reported non-compliance and take the appropriate action, if it is deemed necessary, to improve the process or procedure and thus improve quality.
Via mail, written, or in person the Head of Quality will inform the employee who reported the non-compliance of the action that was taken to correct the non-compliance or the reasons why the condition was determined not to be non-compliant.
The Head of Quality will maintain a folder for each month’s Non-compliance Reports, Form QAS-1, and quality related Suggestion Forms. At the end of the month, the month’s folder will be filed in chronological order for the year.
Estimate Concerns or Non-Compliance Severity¶
Sample Non-compliance Concerns and Reduction via Corrective Actions¶
