Managing Quality in Aviation Projects

Abstract

From aircraft manufacturing, product customization, aircraft maintenance, and aircraft launch and recovery, project management is threaded through all aspects of aviation. Given the supreme importance of quality to every aircraft manufacturer, airline, and passenger, it would be expected that quality management, within the context of project management, would be a construct that is clearly defined. The aim of this mixed-methods research seeks to understand how quality is managed and assured in aviation projects, whether the current quality management framework is applicable to the aviation industry, and how quality should ultimately be managed in aviation projects. The results suggest that aviation project management could benefit by adopting a new lens for managing project quality and avoiding a surface-level adoption of quality tools designed primarily for the mass production context.