- Having successfully identified, measured, monitored and managed risk more effectively
- Knowing that the enterprise remains vigilant on current and emerging risks and manages these within the organisations specified risk tolerances/appetite
As the Group Executive Manager Aviation (2IC), Graeme Crawford led the regulation development and operational functions of the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) for 5 ½ years where he oversaw the finalisation of the flight operations regulations and standards, lead the oversight of authorisation holders to ensure compliance with the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Act 1988 and the Airspace Act 2007 and implemented transformation from a regional to a national operating model to ensure that regulatory services were delivered effectively, on time and consistently. During his tenure Crawford regularly represented CASA and Australia at International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) assemblies and Director General Civil Aviation (DGCA) meetings promoting Australia’s stellar civil aviation record and thereby maintaining its strong reputation within the international community.
Crawford was accountable for managing the Regulatory Failure risk for both CASA and Australia and was responsible to the CASA board of directors for assuring effective and proportionate oversight and management of regulatory failure risk, while adhering to CASA’s regulatory philosophy and considering CASA’s regulatory posture. Throughout his tenure at CASA, Crawford chaired the Aviation Safety Committee (ASC) which he established to govern regulatory failure risk and monitor Australian and international aviation accidents/incidents and trends, aviation sector surveillance findings, aviation sector risk profile outputs, regulatory safety review and safety assurance review findings/recommendations for significant accidents/incidents and intelligence gained from the aviation community/industry and/or CASA inspectorate.
At Crawford’s direction CASA established the integrated Civil Aviation Safety System (CASS) as the single source of truth on all issues related to civil aviation safety to assist the ASC in effectively and efficiently managing the regulatory failure risk. The CASA board and executive agreed the definition of Regulatory Failure was “An air accident resulting in fatalities arising from, or is attributed to, a CASA failure in regulatory or safety oversight, resulting in a loss of stakeholder and public confidence in CASA as a competent and effective safety regulator and public institution”.
Risk assessment and risk management have been integral elements of the planning and on-going monitoring of significant business transformation and business growth/resizing activities led by Crawford at the globally recognized organisations he was employed by in Australia, Europe and North America. As such he is very familiar with the conduct and review of both, the criticality of conducting robust assessments to adequately identify risks and the importance of an effective assurance process for the on-going monitoring of the effectiveness of risk mitigations/treatments.
- Added value for customers, shareholders and employees through sustained improvements in effectiveness, efficiency and consistency
- Applying governance and change management best practice to ensure the transformation delivers the projected outcomes on time and within cost
- Implementing new technology solutions to deliver sustained step shift improvements in performance
Graeme Crawford took on the role of General Manager Engine & Component Maintenance Services at Qantas Airways (QA) in February 2008, leading a team of 812 employees located at 7 maintenance facilities across Australia. He was tasked to look at the long-term viability of the Sydney aero engine maintenance centre which repaired Rolls-Royce (R-R) RB211 engines and employed 360 staff.
Crawford’s review concluded that the scope of QA Sydney based engine maintenance capabilities should be reduced and limited to quick engine change, spare engine management and limited part repair activities i.e. RB211 heavy engine repairs and the associated significant part repairs would cease. With the engagement of his leadership team and the support of the QA executive, Crawford developed a transformation plan that would exit the existing facility, establish a new aero engine support shop (AESS) adjacent to Qantas Engineering’s (QE) supply chain warehouse at Mascot and reduce the QE’s staffing by over 200 full time employees within 12 months of initiation.
The biggest challenge was to secure employee and union acceptance of the decision made. Crawford conducted many all employee and reduced number communication sessions to ensure that the case for change was well understood, that the impacted employees were assured that the leadership team was committed to looking after them and that forced redundancies would be minimised through retention in the AESS, job swaps across QE with individuals who were interested in a redundancy or retraining to fill existing QE vacancies.
Although Crawford had only been running the Engine & Component Maintenance Services business for a short period, his transparent and candid sharing of the outcome of his review of the long-term viability of the Sydney aero engine maintenance business with staff combined with the demonstrated genuine efforts of him and his leadership team to look after all impacted employees as best they could, resulted in a high level of trust during a very challenging time.
Crawford with the support of his leadership and QE peers had conducted extensive risk assessments of the resizing of the engine activities at Sydney including contingency plans that would ensure the airline still had sufficient supply of serviceable RB211 spare engines had the engine maintenance employees taken industrial action.
The employees and unions worked with Crawford and his team and the Sydney engine centre ceased operations as planned in 2009 which was significant as it was the culmination of 50 years of continuous jet engine maintenance at that location. Current and past employees and leaders associated with the Sydney engine maintenance business were invited to a 50 year celebration which included them receiving a medallion to commemorate the significant milestone.
Graeme Crawford was recruited by Air Canada (AC) in November 1996 as the Operations Director of their aero engine and auxiliary power unit (APU) maintenance business in Montreal, Canada. Crawford had been instrumental in reengineering business processes, implementing 24/7 operations, introducing/monitoring effective key performance metrics and engaging employees at his previous employer GE Caledonian (GE Cal) which had significantly grown its market share due to the resultant sustained reduced CF6/CFM56 engine maintenance turnaround times (TAT). AC wanted Crawford to leverage his knowledge and expertise to replicate the outcomes at GE Cal to bring the Montreal engine business up to similar business performance standards.
When Crawford commenced his role at AC, engine average turnaround times (TAT) exceeded 90 calendar days with some engines exceeding 140 calendar days, 90% of the 799 employees in the engine/APU overhaul and part repair teams worked dayshift Monday to Friday, AC engines/APU’s represented 60% of the annual volume and customers including AC were generally dissatisfied with the inconsistent TAT’s and the corresponding unreliable delivery dates.
As the AC engine/APU maintenance business was heavily unionised, Crawford with the support of the AC executive, his peers and his leadership team developed a compelling case for change that benefitted the key stakeholders. For the AC executive this was reduced reliable TAT’s that ensured availability of engine/APU assets, enhanced support of the airline operations and increased subsidisation of engine/APU costs through increased 3rd party customer business. Similarly for the 3rd party customers the transformation would result in reduced reliable TAT’s translating to improved engine/APU availability and enhanced support of their airline operations. For the employees a better performing and more competitive business operating 24 hours/day, 7 days a week (24/7) provided enhanced job security and increased earnings.
When Crawford completed his time at Air Canada average engine TATs were stable at 75 days +/- 5days, customers could plan around reliable delivery dates, AC volume remained stable while 3rd party customers increased from 40% to 60% of the overall volume and the 799 employees were distributed evenly across a 5 shift rosters providing 24/7 continuous operations.
- Establishing a sustained LEAN culture within the organisation that understands the enterprises value offering and maintains a steady focus on leaning out processes and continuous improvement
- Applying a consistent data-driven improvement cycle (DMAIC – Design, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control) for improving, optimising and stabilising business processes and designs
Shortly after obtaining his Lean Six Sigma (LSS) accreditation Graeme Crawford was appointed the Head of Lean Six Sigma & BPR (Business Process Engineering) at Qantas Engineering (QE) in May 2015, where he implemented a standardised methodology for project selection and governance. He established and chaired the QE Project Review Board (QEPRB) consisting of the QE executive leadership team and provided clear role definitions based on whether an executive was sponsoring or reviewing an LSS/Continuous Improvement (CI) or transformation project. Sponsoring executives were required to explain the merits of proposed projects they wanted supported by the QEPRB by presenting a completed 8 blocker covering the Define stage of the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control) process including the identification of any critical to quality (CTQ) aspects and the impact on QE value stream sub processes.
The QE Lean Six Sigma core team was deployed to support the QE Business Units launch, progress, and monitor their respective projects post approval by the QEPRB. In the first half of 2015 QE had significant LSS/BPR projects running in integrated planning/maintenance operations, component maintenance, supply chain repair supplier management, aircraft heavy maintenance and warehousing. In addition, Crawford was instrumental in laying the foundations to establish a critical mass of LSS champions within the QE leadership by arranging black and green belt training with General Electric with deployment of the individuals on to QE projects as an integrated element of the training.
Crawford was well versed in the principles and practices of Lean, CI, Achieving Competitive Excellence (ACE) and Total Quality Management (TQM) prior to gaining his black belt accreditation in 2014 and had applied these on several occasions as he led significant business transformations at GE Caledonian, Air Canada, Goodrich Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney and Qantas Airways.
- Clear and succinct business value proposition that is understood by customers, stakeholders and employees
- Building the enterprises reputation for consistently delivering it’s commitments
- Expanding and retaining market share for existing product/service offerings
- Leveraging or enhancing existing capabilities to expand into complimentary product/service offerings
- Maintaining a strategic focus on current and emerging market opportunities
- Establish a mechanism for considering market exit and/or enterprise reinvention
Graeme Crawford was recruited by Pratt & Whitney (P&W) in June 2000 to run the Norway Engine Centre (NEC) which was being acquired from the Norwegian national airline Braathens. This represented a change in strategic direction for the Connecticut based aero engine manufacturer as this would be the first engine maintenance facility within the P&W aftermarket services (PWAS) network that did not maintain engines manufactured by P&W.
At acquisition NEC repaired the CFM56-3 engine type (B737) manufactured by the General Electric/Snecma joint venture CFM International (CFMI), had 4 regular customers including Braathens and had engine turnaround times (TAT) ranging from 70 to 110 calendar days.
Crawford’s role was to grow NEC, establish it as a strong competitor in the CFM56 global maintenance market and continually grow PWAS CFM56 related revenue. As the primary revenue in aero engine maintenance comes from replacement part sales, complex part/component repairs, additional services and maintenance related fees, Crawford’s focus was to build a broader customer base, increase annual engine volume through NEC and convince customers to install alternate P&W parts and repairs in their engines during maintenance.
At the time the CFM56 represented the most saturated and competitive aero engine maintenance market with 38 competitors globally and as such there were several reputable providers who were competitive on cost, quality and TAT. In addition to differentiating NEC from the global competition Crawford had to influence the PWAS repair centres to have reduced TATs on their CFM56 repairs which typically had less margin than the higher volume P&W engine parts they were repairing on a regular basis.
Crawford concluded that reduced engine TAT with less expensive P&W parts and repairs would be a sufficient differentiator to attract customers and grow volume for both NEC and PWAS. To deliver this outcome for the first 4 years of his tenure, Crawford spent an average of 1 week per month in East Hartford, Connecticut managing the P&W stakeholders (PWAS executive, repair centre leadership and global sales teams) reinforcing the CFM56 maintenance differentiation strategy and explaining the need and timing of future capital investment.
In the first 6 months at NEC Crawford assessed each member of his leadership team and identified weaknesses in operations, supply chain and sales. He addressed operations by appointing the existing engineering manager into the operations role and externally recruiting a new engineering manager from GE Wales. He recruited a supply chain manager externally from Rolls-Royce and supplemented the sales team by externally recruiting a sales manager from GE Caledonian.
The leadership changes meant that the foundation was in place to reengineer NEC’s business processes using the Lean and ACE (Achieving Competitive Excellence) to deliver sustainable engine TAT’s of 45 calendar days. Crawford then embarked on engaging the other critical stakeholders i.e. the NEC employees and union leaders to secure their buy in to the CFM56 differentiation strategy. As an incentive, Crawford introduced an employee welfare fund where NEC made a deposit every time an engine was delivered on time (better than contract) and extracted 50% of the deposit if an engine was delivered late to contract. The welfare funds were used to purchase sports equipment, camping equipment, power tools and rent cabins at the coast in summer and in the mountains in winter.
During Crawford’s 6+ year tenure running NEC the engine centre’s customer base grew from 4 to 37 owner/operators, 23 of whom provided regular volume. Annual engine shipments increased from 22 to over 100 per year and CFM56-3 TAT was stabilised at 45 calendar days with greater than 85% of heavy shop visits delivered in TAT’s better than contract all contributing to the employee welfare fund. PWAS annual used material and part repair sales increased tenfold. In addition, CFM56-7B (B737NG) and CFM56-5B (A320) engine maintenance capability, CFM56-3 telemetry engine testing and part measurement/scanning capability was established at NEC. The P&W Engine Leasing (PWEL) CFM56 engine pool grew from 0 to 14 engines, with 75% of the assets being leased to NEC customers at any point in time. Crawford also Facilitated the partnership with Gas Turbine Efficiency that led to the establishment of the new PWAS Eco Wash business.
- Providing inspiration by clearing stating the organisations purpose and direction
- Being truly authentic by displaying high integrity and trust
- Promote devolved decision making by involving others, encouraging ownership and recognising the contribution of individuals and teams
- Share knowledge, foster ideas, encourage out of the box thinking and promote collaboration
- Acknowledge the need for agility by seeking new ideas and encouraging learning and innovation
Graeme Crawford has led and implemented significant business transformations for globally renowned organisations in
Australia, Europe and North America. In all cases Crawford with the support of his leadership teams, his peers and the organisation senior executive has built robust relationships with employees and their representatives. In his experience transparent candid communications, clearly articulating the situation, the options being considered, the potential outcomes and the likely benefit/impacts on employees demonstrates integrity and ultimately builds trust. Over the years Crawford has learned that whilst on paper there is often an optimum solution, the most effective outcome is usually achieved through collaborative leadership and high employee engagement where each are given the opportunity to contribute to the ultimate solution.
Since holding senior operational leadership roles at GE Caledonian in the early 1990’s, Crawford has continually improved his approach to connected leadership and at both Qantas Airways and CASA held regular employee dialogue sessions at locations across the country where 10-15 employees from different departments and at different levels within the organisation could sit with him and discuss issues important to them. These dialogue sessions would typically run for 1 hour, had no written agenda and employees were encouraged to take the opportunity to discuss concerns or opinions directly with Crawford. He would also take the opportunity to update employees on recent developments, share his perspective on specific subjects and where necessary broach contentious issues (elephant in the room) when the attendees were reluctant to do so.
As these dialogue sessions had attendees from different departments and levels, both the participants and Crawford were able to receive unfiltered feedback and importantly participants including those from the leadership were able to confirm comments made by Crawford and reinforce any key messaging.
- Leveraging solid understanding of regulatory requirements and associated standards
- Achieving regulatory compliance by applying interpretation to develop and implement practical solutions
- Utilise past experience and Lean principles to minimise complexity and cost
As the Group Executive Manager Aviation (2IC), Crawford led the regulation development and operational functions of the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) for 5 ½ years where he oversaw the finalisation of the flight operations regulations and standards, lead the oversight of authorisation holders to ensure compliance with the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Act 1988 and the Airspace Act 2007 and implemented transformation from a regional to a national operating model to ensure that regulatory services were delivered effectively, on time and consistently. During his tenure Crawford regularly represented CASA and Australia at International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) assemblies and Director General Civil Aviation (DGCA) meetings promoting Australia’s stellar civil aviation record and thereby maintaining it’s strong reputation within the international community.
At CASA Crawford encouraged authorisation holders and regulated entities to develop and implement solutions that were both compliant and optimum for their business models and promoted the adoption of alternate means of compliance. He coached the CASA regulatory oversighting staff on the pitfalls of directing authorisation holders/regulated entities how to comply with the aviation regulations and continually reminded them that it was imperative that the regulated owned their own compliance solutions and not CASA.
Prior to joining CASA, Crawford held aviation regulator nominated accountable manager positions in Australia (Casa, Qantas), Canada (Air Canada, TCCA) Europe (GE Caledonian and P&W NEC, EASA) and USA (Goodrich Aerospace, FAA) and as such is knowledgeable of the respective civil aviation regulations, understands what is required to comply and is familiar with being overseen/audited by regulating entities.
