SMS Pro Aviation Safety Software Blog 4 Airlines & Airports

What Does Documenting Your SMS Mean

SMS documentation is probably the most critical component of aviation SMS design. Documentation must be clear, accurate, and easy to access. Documentation reflects SMS compliance and SMS performance.

What is Proactive Risk Management

Proactive risk management for safety managers involves risk management activities that are dedicated to recognizing potential concerns before those concerns actualize. Proactive risk management does this by:

Hazard Reporting Process is For More Than Just Hazards

The idea of “hazard reporting” is a bit inaccurate because employees should be reporting more than just hazards.

Hazards are just one type of concern that employee should report. When we are talking about hazard reporting, what we are really talking about is “issue reporting.”

Definition of Risk

Risk, in its general form, is what is most often cited when discussing the definition of risk, and the idea of risk.

Risk in general is:

What is Reactive Risk Management in Aviation SMS

Reactive risk management in aviation SMS is a technique that, mainly, involves the ability to respond to safety issues (or other types of issues, such as compliance, quality, etc.).

Reactive management is a response based approach to risk.

Building Hazard Reporting Culture Through Convenience

If you want to improve your aviation SMS program’s hazard reporting culture, the first thing you should do is see if you can make hazard reporting easier.

“Easier” is a tricky word.

Are manual hazard reporting forms easy? The long answer begins with: it depends on the situation. The short answer is: sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Definition of Acceptable Level of Safety in Aviation SMS

Acceptable Level of Safety (ALoS) in Aviation SMS is how you define the maximum level of risk you are willing to accept as “reasonable.”

When I say "you," I'm actually referring to the person who has the authority to accept risk for a particular area of operations. This may include:

• Accountable executive;
• Department heads;
• Safety officers; or 
• Line managers.

Why Quality Management Is So Important for Safety

Quality management systems (QMS) are the big brother of safety management systems (SMS).  They are often depicted as having conflicting interests.

Unfortunately, this is true in many organizations because the bottom line (money) is pushed more than safety.

How Aviation Safety Program Becomes Global Standard

The human spirit is a restless one, always seeking to push the boundaries of possibility.

Since the Wright brothers first successful flight occurred only in 1903, aviation is relatively new to humankind. The nature of flight challenges people to come up with better ways to deal with risk.

The global standard, SMS, supports the aviation industry through

• good organization,
• safety assurance and
• collaboration.

Essentially, SMS seeks to preserve and promote the freedom to fly.

Definition of Risk and Risk Occurrence

The concept of risk changes depending on which context you use it. This is not comfortable for many safety managers who insist that risk is simply one thing.

It’s important that safety professionals keep an open mind to variations in how different safety terms are used.

Awareness of variation improves communication and understanding of the risk management process.