SMS Pro Aviation Safety Software Blog 4 Airlines & Airports

Purpose of Continuous Improvement in Safety Assurance Pillar

In every aviation safety management system (SMS), the accountable executive is responsible for ensuring the SMS is properly implemented and performing in all areas of the organization. The intent is not for the aviation SMS to reach some ideal "plateau of safety" and then maintain the "ideal safety level." Far from it!

The purpose of the aviation SMS is to demonstrate that the organization can proactively manage safety year-after-year, audit-after-audit.

As your SMS matures, your ability to collect and analyze safety data will increase. Your safety management capabilities are expected to gradually become more sophisticated. Furthermore, SMS regulatory auditors will have higher expectations of your SMS as more data has been collected, or should have been collected.

How will you react to these demands to demonstrate continuous improvement?

Safety Promotion as an Aviation SMS Pillar

Since November 2006, ICAO mandated that aviation service providers implement formal aviation safety management systems (SMS). The objective of the aviation SMS is to:

• Proactively manage safety,
• Identify potential hazards,
• Determine operational risk, and
• Implement risk control measures; 
• Continuously monitor system for hazards; and
• Demonstrate continuous improvement of the SMS.

Properly implemented aviation SMS follow the ICAO standard. The SMS structure is based on four components (or pillars) and twelve elements. The four components are:

1. Safety Policy;
2. Safety Risk Management;
3. Safety Assurance; and
4. Safety Promotion.

What is Safety Assurance in Aviation SMS

In order for an aviation safety management system (SMS) to be effective, the SMS must be monitored to provide assurance to managers and regulatory authorities that the SMS is both

• implemented correctly, and
• working as designed.

An ICAO compliant SMS is structured around four main components, which are also known as the Four Pillars. The third aviation SMS component is Safety Assurance (SA). The primary purpose of safety assurance is to demonstrate the SMS remains functional and alert management of substandard safety performance. Substandard safety performance is corrected under the direction of the Accountable Executive.

Purpose of Safety Performance Assessment in Safety Assurance Pillar

If you cannot measure safety performance in your aviation safety management systems (SMS), then:

• How do you know whether your operations are as safe as can be reasonably expected?
• How can your set safety goals and objectives when you don't have actionable intelligence to assist in fact-based decision-making processes?
• How do you know your aviation SMS is driving operational performance improvements?

What Is Safety Assurance for FAA

Safety Assurance is designed to ensure that aviation service providers have the ability to manage safety risks effectively using a structured, prescribed approach to managing identified safety concerns.

Stages of Safety Events with FAA vs. Others

Regulatory oversight agencies in various countries/regions possess inconsistent definitions for:

• hazards,
• risks, and
• the stages of safety events.

Make no mistake, it’s extremely important how these safety elements are defined and conceptualized. It will determine how you practice risk management and safety assurance activities.

If your definitions don’t quite align with your oversight agency’s definitions, a keen auditor will notice disparities in your risk management documentation. The implications are:

• Your entire hazard register does not appropriately identify “hazards”;
• All hazard analysis documentation will be slightly misguided; and
• Risk controls may be controlling the wrong elements.

FAA’s Safety Risk Management (SRM) Process and System Description Element

The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) safety risk management (SRM) compliance requirement for System Description has one clear goal: establish the components of your operating environment’s

• systems,
• processes,
• procedures, and
• important safety elements.

Despite the fact that the goal is clear, system description is too often skimmed over by safety teams during their initial implementation phase of their aviation safety management systems (SMS). This is a mistake.

Why is this element of SRM often skimmed over?

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.

FAA Part 5 Built around 4 Pillars of SMS

Federal Aviation Administration Part 5 requirements are modeled after the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). They set the standard upon which many oversight agencies around the globe model their own standards. In general, Part 5 requirements are specific enough to provide direction, but flexible enough to allow aviation SMS programs and airline SMS programs the ability to adapt to those requirements.

FAA’s SRM Risk Control Component – Defining Risk

The FAA’s SRM Risk Control component is the 5^th and final element in the Safety Risk Management process.

The Risk Control component is the phase in which you will bring hazards and hazards’ risks into an acceptable level of safety.