Continental Airlines Crew Coordination Concepts

This research critiques two articles that deal with the Crew Coordination Concepts (CCC) program implemented by Continental Airlines. The articles are as follows:

1. Fotos/Houston, Christopher P. (1991, 26 August). Continental applies CRM concepts to technical, maintenance corps. Aviation Week & Space Technology, 3233.

2. Fotos/Houston, Christopher P. (1991, 26 August). Training stresses teamwork, selfassessment techniques. Aviation Week & Space Technology, 3335.

Continental Airlines' CCC program is an application to the organization's technical and maintenance operations of the Cockpit Resource Management (CRM) concept that is employed by Continental and most other major airlines in conjunction with flight operations (1:32). Currently, the CCC program is functioning at the level of assistant supervisor (1:32). If the program proves successful at this level, Continental plans to extend the application of the program to the rank and file level of the organization's technical and maintenance operations (1:32).

The goal of Continental's CCC program is to achieve improvements in both safety and efficiency (1:32). In pursuit of these goals, the CCC program seeks to improve communication between team members, to teach team members how to identify the essential prob

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the principles of participative management. Within the context of participative management, the CCC program is fully consistent with the principles of quality control management delineated by Edwards Deming. More than anything else, Continental's CCC program is a quality control program. The team concept incorporated into the CCC program is a manifestation of the quality circles concept that has gained worldwide acceptance in a variety of industries, as an application of Deming's principles in a participative management context. Deming insisted that true quality control began with a real commitment from top management. All too many American companies, however, have tended to make quality control a minor function of middle or lowerlevel management. What Deming sought was a mathematical means of controlling the level of quality by seeking ever finer operational tolerances. While this system of quality control demanded a commitment from the highest management levels, a heavy dependence is also placed on the participation of personnel from all levels of the organization. Continental's Valeika has stated that management commitment is vital to the success of the CCC program (2:33). Valeika has also noted that participants
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Approximate Word count = 1232
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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