SMS Pro Aviation Safety Software Blog 4 Airlines & Airports

Defining Good Safety Culture in Aviation SMS

Safety culture will be the last thing to develop in your SMS.

Once you fully implement your SMS design (Phase 3 of SMS implementation), you will need to monitor your SMS to ensure it is functioning as designed. Aviation safety programs with good safety cultures usually operate as designed.

Having good safety culture helps you complete Phase 4 of SMS implementation. Broadly speaking, a good safety culture is one that is characterized by:

Financial Opportunities Abound from Aviation SMS Processes

Aviation safety management systems (SMS) are designed to be implemented in a top down managerial style for some "not-so-obvious reasons." For one reason, the "accountable executive" cannot accurately be considered "accountable" when safety initiatives and budgets exist beyond their direct control.

Accountable executives control organizational resources, including finances. Organizational safety financial decisions must be controlled and optimally  championed by accountable executives.

Accountable executives understand:

• Current business strategy;
• Available and future budgetary constraints; and 
• Global, regional and corporate business cycles.

Unfortunately, most accountable executives don't realize how much latent money-making-potential resides within their aviation SMS implementations. This potential resides outside their purview.

In this advanced aviation SMS article, we assume you "influence" a functional SMS. Like many others, you may expect this core business function to earn the financial rewards so often promised in SMS regulatory guidance.

If processes are not easy, they are not sustainable!

Aviation Safety Management Is Business!

For most operators implementing regulatory compliant aviation safety management systems (SMS), their primary business goal was obviously regulatory compliance. Otherwise, thousands of aviation service providers would have initiated aviation SMS before ICAO's November 2006 mandate.

A small percentage of managers believe that their SMS may be able to save money "somehow." Others simply view SMS as a sunk cost and hope that maybe an accident may be prevented.

Definition of Safety Culture in Aviation Risk Management

Safety culture in aviation safety management systems (SMS) is usually defined as being the safety attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and values of employees in an organization. Unfortunately, such a high-level, conceptual definition of safety culture does not help safety manager address core personnel challenges in your organization's SMS.

In much of the SMS guidance material pushed out by regulatory agencies and standards setting bodies, such as ICAO's document 9859 Safety Management Manual,

Aviation SMS Success Dependent on Safety Culture

Whether safety professionals or upper management like it or not, a successful aviation safety management system (SMS) is dependent on safety culture. This fact hold true for every aviation industry segment, including:

• airlines;
• airports;
• maintenance organizations, etc.

Your company can have the best risk management processes and the most expensive aviation SMS database,

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.

What Is Confidentiality in Aviation SMS

Confidentiality in aviation SMS is how much personal information is included in available safety reports and concerns. When safety issues are reported, employees may or may not have access to details about the reported issue. When employees do have access, or when you release information about a reported issue, you will need to decide if employees can see information like:

• Names of people involved;
• Department names;
• Locations;

Quality Leadership Stimulates Teamwork

A mature, effective aviation safety management system (SMS) will always incorporate imaginative ways to stimulate teamwork and good communication between employees.

It’s a tricky area though because teamwork and communication are beset by:

• Poor interpersonal relationships;
• Different teamwork needs;
• Cultural differences; and
• Separate problem-solving strategies

What Aviation SMS Needs for Successful Hazard Reporting

Aviation safety management systems (SMS) needs input from three levels of your organization to be successful. Without total involvement of your company, hazard reporting will fail.

The three levels of your company and their corresponding responsibility for setting up a successful hazard reporting program are:

• Administrative – providing resources (financial, policy)
• Managerial – appropriate action on reported issues

What Is Participation in Your SMS

Employee participation in your aviation SMS is critical to its maintainability. We this over and over, where the SMS is being pushed by one person and when that person leaves, the program falls apart.

One of the primary goals of generating good involvement is creating a sustainable SMS.

Participation is a word that is often lost on service providers.

• What does it mean?
• What does it look like?
• How do I know if my SMS has it?