Simon has been involved in human factors, risk and safety management in the aviation industry for over two decades. After obtaining his first degree in Integrated Engineering Simon started his career at Airbus. Identifying the need to address maintenance human factors and the unique role played by the manufacturer, Simon undertook a secondment in BAE Systems and completed a PhD in the subject.
Returning to Airbus as Maintenance Human Factors Manager, he set up and managed a team of psychologists and engineers working together to advise on the safe and efficient maintenance of aircraft. They developed and implemented safety improvement processes focussing specifically on how designs can be assessed for maintenance error and how this might be managed before production. He coordinated the sharing of incident data from the Airbus fleet and was on the committee which triaged maintenance incidents, analysing them and proposing action to be taken. He coordinated European maintenance human factors, research trained airlines, maintenance organisations and aviation regulators worldwide and presented at many international conferences and symposia.
For the last decade, he has operated as an independent consultant advising companies on the modern approach to risk management and on organisational resilience and Safety-II. Within aviation, Simon has continued providing support on fixed wing but also on rotorcraft. Working with all the major helicopter manufacturers he has co-developed techniques to review maintenance resilience of in-service aircraft and human hazard analysis techniques to improve design. He also lectures for Cranfield University and City University, London and co- authored an internal White Paper on “Human-Centred Design for Maintenance” for the RAeS which will drive change on this important topic in the years to come.
Outside of aviation, he is a trained business coach, worked on ‘The Resilience Shift’, the drive to improve resilience in critical infrastructure, and also adapted aviation risk and safety concepts for use within a health and social care setting, in care homes, hospitals, children’s and adult social care. He is a member of ‘Q’ the UK National Health Service Quality and Patient Safety initiative and is founder of the Organisational Resilience Special Interest Group. He is also on the executive committee of the Resilience Engineering Association.