Adaptation of Crew Resource Management Training in High-risk Industries

Crew resource management (CRM) is a training concept for optimising the use of all available resources (e.g. human, technology, organisation) within high-risk operations. It has its origins in aviation, but the principles and methods of CRM are already used in many other industries, like medicine or fire service. In order to raise the reliability of teams working in these industries, it is important to train them in non-technical skills (e.g. cooperation, managerial and leadership skills, decision making or situation awareness). Despite many years of research on CRM training, the amount of detailed information about these training programmes is often limited. Thus, the picture about CRM is not as clear as it should be. This makes it difficult to assess the effectiveness of such training programmes to prevent human error and industrial accidents. During a research project on the adaptation of CRM training, scientists of Rhine-Waal University in Kamp-Lintfort (Germany) conducted an empirical study. They interviewed 10 CRM experts from civil and military aviation, aircraft engineering, fire service, seafaring and medicine, about their experiences with CRM training to gain an overview about the current state of CRM in different industries. They identified cross-industry and industry-specific lessons learned as well as success factors of these training programmes. The results can be used to improve current CRM programmes, which in turn may increase safety standards in high-risk work domains.