Process Improvement of Internal Audit for Airport Ramp Safety

Abstract

Currently, the airline industry has expanded rapidly. As a result, the numbers of
passengers who use the service have grown accordingly. Meanwhile, the danger of
accidents in aircraft parking area has increased as well. From such information the
Department of Civil Aviation has issued a requirement for all airlines to implement safety
standards for operation.The results of the audit from the Civil Aviation Department
showed that the company of case study has major flaws in its audit process of safety that
need to be corrected urgently. This is the reason for the process improvements of this
research.
The research, entitled Process Improvement of Internal Audit for Airport Ramp
Safety, is aimed to serve two objectives 1) to improve the process of internal audits for
airport ramp safety according to international aviation safety standard and 2) to verify the
process of internal audits for airport ramp safety according to international aviation safety
standard.
This research reviews the concept of process improvement of internal audit from
QC Story by Lueprasitsakun (2002), JSA (1993), JUSE (2001) the process of internal audit by
Sopranodorn (2009) and the surveillance requirements of ISO9001 audit and ICAO Ramp
Safety Standard applied to the new process.

The results have established the new internal audit process consisting of 11 steps.
This improved process is comprised of four indicators at the process level and seven
indicators at the operational level. The improved process has received consent by the
experts and implemented in the real environment for two months. The indicators, as well
as the results after implementation, are as follows: 1. The number of internal auditors.
This indicator has been set to be at one person in every audit area, which it has never
been set beforehand. 2. The percentage of internal audit steps in compliance with the
standards. This figure is increased to be 100% after it has never been collected
beforehand. 3. The percentage of auditee units audited on scheduled. This indicator is
increased 50% to be 100% after the new process implementation. 4. The percentage of all
corrective actions resolved by the deadline. It grows up from 70% to 100% after the new
process implementation.