Quality assurance in aircraft maintenance for the RSAF after introducing of new aircraft

Abstract

Of the past 5 to 10 years the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) has been investing heavily in new hardware in order to revamp the older fleet of aircraft that has been in stock for almost do decades. As the organisation invest in new hardware there has been a noticeably slow movement in the application of quality management systems (QMS) that could guarantee the measurement of the performance of aircraft maintenance crews at various workshops locally and internationally. As a result the overall quality assurance from the aircraft maintenance exercises within the RSAF has been under in doubt. In order to improve the quality of the aircraft maintenance programs the government, through the RSAF, has been training officers in order to equip them with the required aircraft maintenance skills necessary for the new fleet of aircraft.
This research therefore assessed how the current provisions of the quality assurance mechanisms have been implemented in the RSAF with the arrival of the new fleet of aircraft. Using a questionnaire survey the research found out that the current mechanism of quality assurance can be adequate to accommodate the new fleet of aircraft; but there is no confidence in the systems from the workshops. The research recommends a process of harmonisation of the application of quality assurance measures so as to reduce any forms of performance disparity between workshops and teams.