SMS Pro Aviation Safety Software Blog 4 Airlines & Airports

Understanding Safety Terms Remains Important

We write everyday about topics relating to aviation safety management systems (SMS), yet we have always taken for granted that you know what is aviation safety?

Deep down, most of us have an idea about safety. We can logically expand a safety definition to encompass the aviation industry. Yet this takes work to consider the broad implications. I've taken a few moments to discuss what is aviation safety, since I've never defined it in the past.

I'm hoping to share a few insights and I am also hoping that other industry experts will expand upon this often overlooked definition.

Safety Culture More Than Policies and Procedures

In some places within the aviation industry, people believe that “safety culture” looks like a lot of rules and regulations. It looks like “the man” or a bunch of nerdy pencil pushers.

I don’t believe that’s what our safety culture does or should look like. I believe safety cultures in the aviation industry can look like so much more.

• It should look more like a community.
• It should look like a team.
• It should look like a family.

A safety culture should be a group of people who together adhere to strict safety standards and practices because of a deep sense of caring for one another and teamwork.

Org Charts Help to Define Accountabilities in Aviation SMS

Safety accountabilities in aviation safety management systems (SMS) implementations outline the bureaucratic structure of organizational safety expectations. Defining accountabilities has the ultimate goal of clearly communicating:

• What levels of responsibility are defined in the aviation SMS;
• Different levels of responsibility for each role; and
• Which roles have authority to make certain safety decisions.

The Concept of Management Commitment in Aviation SMS Programs

Management’s commitment in aviation safety management systems (SMS) is an extremely important part of the Four Pillar’s Safety Policy component.

Without a doubt, your SMS will fail without support from senior management.

Successful aviation SMS have exceptional safety cultures that rely significantly upon strong management commitment. The reasons management commitment is so critical for Safety Policy in the Four Pillars and aviation safety culture are:

What Is Proactive Risk Management?

I see many misnomers about what proactive risk management is when talking in context of an aviation safety management system (SMS).

Often one sees the proactive risk management concept clumped together with risk management in general, as if they are one in the same. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Not only in reference to maturing aviation SMS, proactive risk management is a specific level of risk management achievement in day to day operations.

What Are Main Activities of Proactive Risk Management?

Like aviation safety culture, proactive risk management is another part of aviation safety management systems (SMS) that a surprising number of people fail to truly understand. This creates missed opportunities and unfulfilled expectations that many aviation service providers can ill afford.

Setting the stage for proactive risk management in an aviation SMS is like painting a house. Safety teams

1. plan and set safety goals;
2. train employees on hazard identification;
3. monitor employee SMS performance activities to determine training effectiveness;
4. promote the SMS with proactive hazard identification-related messages; and
5. continuously monitor, review and repeat the process.

What is a Hazard

A hazard in aviation risk management is a condition that poses danger to your organization, and can lead to safety incidents if not mitigated. Hazards are central to the entire risk management process. Often, hazards are either confused with risks (i.e., accidents) and hazardous sources. We will explore what hazardous sources are and how they differ from hazards in this article.

Relationship between Aviation Safety Management Systems and Safety Culture

I have recently seen a great rise in the interest and emphasis placed on safety culture in aviation safety management systems (SMS).

Until the last number of years, safety culture has been treated like an appendage or “bonus” to having a performant, successful aviation SMS implementation. Now however, I see safety culture starting to pop up all over the place.

By definition, aviation safety culture is described as reflecting the real commitment to safety, or how people act when no one is watching. With this understanding, the aviation SMS provides the means to achieve safety and the safety culture is the commitment to achieve safety.

This understanding is not good enough. Commitment is just one type of a larger safety culture.

Aviation Safety Policy Influences Safety Assurance

Our global economy relies heavily on aviation SMS safety assurance activities to be carried out dutifully by aviation service providers.

The aviation industry is responsible for safely transporting goods and people all over the world. It is also responsible for employing millions of people in all corners of our globe. Without the aviation industry, our global economy would slow significantly.

Why #Policies Involved In Issues Charts Matter for Your Aviation SMS

Operational policies and procedures are the bureaucratic backbone to the success of every organization. The policies and procedures are the recipe, or secret sauce that your company uses to deliver its product or service.

The purpose of every aviation safety management system (SMS), besides to obviously improve levels of system safety, is to improve operational processes to a point where risk is mitigated as low as reasonably practical (ALARP). The most practical approach to achieve this goal is for the industry, as a whole, to adopt standards that manage risk in a formal, structured, proven risk management process.

As operators improve their operational processes, systemic risk is logically reduced. A most powerful approach to improve your processes in the shortest time possible is to actively and continuously monitor your policies and procedures.