Operations Crew Resource Management - OCRM

Why do experienced, competent personnel make mistakes during the planning or implementation of operations? How does an organization address these potential mistakes? High-risk industries introduce and practice non-technical skills (NTS) coined as Crew Resource Management (CRM) to address human errors. In the late 1970s, the airline industry was plagued with many crashes and resulting fatalities. Often investigations yielded no evidence of design or mechanical failures, rather poor or inconsistent decision making was the major contributing factor to the incident (e.g., poor communications, distractions, leadership actions, lack of teamwork, changing situation without knowledge, stresses, and fatigue played a role in the incidents). The industry came together focusing on six non-technical skills, naming the effort CRM. After 40 plus years, CRM is still a major component of all airline industry training. Other high-risk industries began to incorporate CRM into their organizations to reduce the number of incidents. However, of recent, those and other industries have seen performance improvements with the incorporation of CRM. Introducing and practicing NTS has reduced nonproductive time thus improving performance delivery.