It’s not always possible or cost-effective to problem-solve in the midst of the problem. Take winter operations, for example. The cold may be affecting a number of different areas of the ramp operation – the equipment that may balk at starting, the products that turn to jelly in the cold and the workers who may slow down from the extreme drops in temperature.
But trying to figure out what could be done better or differently to ameliorate the situation, may be difficult to do while continuing to run the operation as effectively as possible given the weather conditions.
I recommend in my audits of FBOs, that, other than emergency problems that need to be immediately resolved or issues with an obvious resolution, problems that arise should be recorded for analysis at the end of the winter.
With a daily log of the types of problems encountered with the equipment and the temperatures when they occurred, for example, a big-picture review of winter operations can be done.
So, if extreme cold had an extreme impact on your operations, it might be worthwhile to review some of the standard operating procedures of a company operating in the extreme cold of Alaska or parts of Canada.
