Customer feature: AirTanker

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Customer feature: AirTanker

World-leading aviation service provider, AirTanker, uses Rolls-Royce Safety Management System Solution to maintain a database of recorded safety incidents, audits and findings, which are used to identify actual and potential future risks.

In a bid to reduce the amount of time it was taking for their people to respond to findings, AirTanker customised its SMS Solution to include an automation system, email alerts and approval processes.

We know that no two businesses are the same and that it’s expensive to build bespoke solutions from scratch. That’s why we’ve designed Rolls-Royce SMS Solution to be flexible. Our out-of-the-box product can be configured to meet the needs of your organisation. World-leading aviation service provider AirTanker has done just that. They’ve been able to configure their system to make it easier for their engineering community to respond directly to findings and actions, which is having a positive impact on their business when it comes to UK Civil Aviation Authority audits.

UK-based AirTanker’s primary role is to ensure the safe and effective operation of the Royal Air Force’s fleet of Voyager aircraft, with capability spanning across end-to-end maintenance, military and civil flying programmes, training, and major aircraft upgrades. Safety is a fundamental aspect of everyone’s role at AirTanker, and the company has been using Rolls-Royce SMS Solution since 2011 to improve safety and diminish risk.

Senior Engineering Quality & Safety Assurance Engineer, Emma, says the engineering and operations teams use Rolls-Royce SMS Solution to maintain a database of recorded safety incidents, audits and findings, which are used to identify actual and potential future risks.

We were finding there were delays in our people responding to findings, or people were emailing their responses. Not only was there a lot of back and forth on email, but when you looked at the history of a finding, although we had the traceability of emails, because we were raising and entering responses on behalf of the engineering team it looked like we were marking our own homework,” says Emma.

To help make the process easier, Emma was tasked with customising Rolls-Royce SMS Solution. Using the functionality available, she configured the settings, email alerts and approvals.

The updates, which were rolled out to AirTanker’s engineering community in March 2023, means they can now respond live and directly to findings and actions. Emma says the feedback has been really positive, with staff impressed with the way it works and are happy to put the responses in.

“It has also had a really positive impact at a business level,” she says. “When we have audits carried out by the UK Civil Aviation Authority, one of the questions they ask is how many findings are overdue. Since the changes, that figure has improved significantly, saving the business from having further findings from the regulatory authority.”

AirTanker’s operations community is now going through the same process, allowing them to enter any findings and actions raised against any of the operations areas directly into Rolls-Royce SMS Solution.

Get in touch if you’d like to learn more about how our market-leading SMS Solution can be customised to meet the unique needs of your business.