SMS Pro Aviation Safety Software Blog 4 Airlines & Airports

What Is Improvement for Your Aviation SMS Implementation?

Improving your aviation safety management system's (SMS) effectiveness doesn’t always have to be a long term effort. Just as with any complex initiative, there will always be low hanging fruit in your SMS implementation that can add considerable value without requiring extravagant expenses or investments in time.

SMS implementation and continuous improvement activities require long term strategies. Nonetheless, there are simple ways you can quickly and easily improve the core aspects of your aviation SMS implementation in a very short amount of time.

Employee Resistance in Aviation SMS Implementations

The majority of aviation service providers are required to implement formal aviation safety management systems (SMS) per the November 2006 ICAO mandate. This is a requirement. SMS implementation is not optional for most operators.

What Is Trend Analysis in Aviation Safety Management?

It is a common misnomer that trend analysis in risk management is used to forecast future performance. This understanding of trend analysis is both reductive and distorts the purpose of trend analysis in aviation safety management systems (SMS).

According to the FAA, the objective of aviation SMS implementations is to:

What Does It Mean To Restructure Aviation SMS Implementations

Occasionally aviation safety mangers will want to do a turn and pivot with the direction of their aviation safety management system (SMS) implementation. What this looks like is restructuring.

When safety managers decide to restructure an aviation SMS implementation, it means changing and updating the bureaucratic structure of the SMS and possibly some of the SMS' documented risk management processes.

Usually the decision to restructure is made in an effort to:

• Improve aviation safety culture;
• Improve safety performance by streamlining processes;
• Align SMS documentation to "real-life" risk management processes; and/or
• Take the safety program to the “next level.”

The Obvious Reasons

We are generally aware of the more straightforward indicators of unhealthy aviation safety management systems (SMS).

Things like:

• Low safety reporting numbers
• Poor safety audit results
• High accident rates

There are several other data-supported indicators of course, but you get the idea. These are statistics that an aviation safety manager can look at and make a fairly quick assessment of how healthy an aviation safety culture is.

What Are Mandatory and Voluntary Safety Reporting Policies

Mandatory and voluntary safety reporting policies are an extremely important part of providing guidance for safety reporting in aviation safety management systems (SMS). Yet, we rarely see these policies published and communicated in aviation SMS implementations.

A mandatory and voluntary reporting policy (or policies) outline what types of safety issues employees:

• MUST report as soon as they are identified; and
• CAN report, but are not obligated to do so, as they are identified.

The Real Purpose of Gap Analysis

A true aviation SMS implementation takes years and a lot of hard work to effect lasting change. SMS implementations can take considerably longer due to:

• Poor gap analyses;
• Ineffective procedures;
• Unstable safety management teams;
• Resistance from upper management;
• Poor oversight (internal & external audits); and
• Mistaken assumptions.

Safety Auditors Are a Rare Breed of Personality Traits

Good aviation safety auditors play a vital role in the ability of an aviation safety management system (SMS) to identify

• substandard safety performance; and
• ways in which the SMS can improve.

Furthermore, safety auditors provide oversight to ensure regulatory and contractual obligations are fulfilled. This oversight is one method of data collection in an SMS' Safety Assurance (SA) component.

Aviation safety auditors have a very hard job for several different reasons.

All Four Pillars Are Not Created Equal

Aviation safety professionals know that the four pillars of safety management systems are the foundational idea upon which aviation safety management systems (SMS) are based.

1. Safety Policy – Defines methods, procedures, and organizational structure
2. Safety Risk Management – Looks at the adequacy of, and determines the need for, risk controls, and identifies new hazards
3. Safety Assurance – Evaluates the effectiveness of implemented strategies
4. Safety Promotion – Aimed at safety training and awareness

FAA’s Safety Risk Management (SRM) Process and Hazard Identification Element

The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) SRM compliance requirement for hazard identification controls every U.S. aviation service provider required to implement formal aviation safety management systems (SMS). These SRM requirements indirectly affect these operators' safety culture and risk management processes whether they like it or not.