FORT NOVOSEL, Ala. -- The U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center launched a new tool today to help aviation safety officers (ASOs) prevent mishaps by providing an Aviation Analytics Dashboard that provides timely, comprehensive information to ASOs at all levels.
The USACRC Aviation Analytics Dashboard is available to all ASOs from the brigade level to the company level to help them manage their safety programs by accessing mishap prevention data within their units, according to Lt. Col. Sean M. O’Connell, USACRC division chief of Aviation Analysis and Prevention.
The dashboard uses an emerging technology to break down relevant information from Class A-C aviation mishaps from over the past few decades in a user-friendly format that allows users to drill down into statistics to identify trends by airframe, unit, location, time frame, causes, events and more, O’Connell said.
While ASOs have access to Army Safety Management Information System (ASMIS) mishap reports already, the process of breaking it down to what is relevant to their missions requires a great deal of effort, he said. The dashboard turns a project that might take hours or days into a matter of just a few clicks.
“This new approach shares information on these mishaps in a visual format that is easy to understand and use. The ASO can tailor their searches by selecting multiple parameters and viewing the results before exporting that information for reports,” O’Connell said. “Users can choose multiple aviation data points, as the dashboard correlates the mishap data to easily identify where mishaps are occurring and trending. Further, the dashboard will sort and filter mishap events from highest occurrence to lowest, displaying where they need to focus risk-mitigation measures. ASOs can access the latest and most accurate mishap data (counts and rate calculations) to brief in their safety standardization council meetings to their commanders to identify risks and apply resources to mitigating them.”
The intent is to empower ASOs with a tool to perform early analysis for mishap prevention and provide commanders a common operating picture where they can see timely stats and mishap details, just as the USACRC staff is able to see throughout the Army, according to Dana R. Brewer, analyst in Directorate of Analysis and Prevention (DAP) Aviation. “We use it daily here at the USACRC to answer internal and external RFIs from the field, and we feel that ASOs will benefit greatly from having it available to them.
“We’ve already done the (necessary) analysis to interpret the data,” he said. “And now, we are able to share that knowledge with the end user. The USACRC will provide ASOs access through a private MS Teams channel, which will afford them access to this dashboard tool.”
The USACRC Aviation Analytics Dashboard leverages Microsoft Power BI to display the information for ASOs in an easily understandable format, Brewer added. Once it is launched, ASOs need to visit the Aviation section of the CRC website at https://safety.army.mil/ON-DUTY/Aviation to gain access to the new tool. Once their credentials are verified, they will be able to access the dashboard through an MS Teams channel.
“We’ve even created a mobile application that provides the user an option to view the dashboard from anywhere through a secure Power BI mobile application, using Windows, iOS, or Android GFE phones,” he said. “The data in the system is sanitized to comply with the use, sharing and release of safety information as prescribed in Department of Defense Instruction 6055.07.”
Even though the application is user friendly, there will be support available from the USACRC Training and Education Directorate to train new ASOs. Those already in the position will have access to a training video and user tips to help to navigate the application and find the mishap analytics summary, Brewer said.
USACRC leadership is excited to make the Aviation Analytics Dashboard available to ASOs and feels it is a valuable tool in preventing mishaps in Army Aviation.
“It’s a huge leap forward in the way that we deliver analytics – it hasn’t been done before,” Brewer said. “It is going to be incredibly beneficial to ASOs in their efforts to preserve readiness and prevent loss of equipment and personnel through mishap prevention.”
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