SMS Pro Aviation Safety Software Blog 4 Airlines & Airports

Why Knowing Who Is Reporting Hazards Is Important

Hazard identification and subsequent hazard mitigation strategies are critical for successful, continued operations. Monitoring which groups of employees are reporting safety issues in your aviation safety management system (SMS) allows management to stay abreast of who is involved in the SMS.

Alternatively, knowing which employees are neglecting to report hazards is also useful information to safety professionals. This would indicate that safety promotion efforts or SMS training efforts need to be reinforced.

Using Trending Charts in Aviation SMS

There are several times each year when managers are interested in trending charts coming from their aviation safety management systems (SMS). These times include during:

• Safety performance monitoring; and
• Determination of continuous improvement progress.

Trending is perhaps among the most difficult tasks for safety managers when they don't have automated tools and databases to capture hazard reports and classify these reported issues.

Safety Reporting Remains Core to Aviation SMS

Participants of healthy aviation safety management systems (SMS) enjoy trusting relationships between management and staff. The goal for organizational success without sacrificing safety and employee welfare is actively promoted and accepted by all.

A systemic problem exists in our aviation industry in that an alarming number of aviation service providers have substandard corporate safety cultures.

Effective Use of Power in Aviation SMS

Aviation safety managers around the world are charged with implementing required aviation safety management systems (SMS). SMS implementations affect entire organizations and not simply a single department, such as:

• Flight ops;
• Ground ops; or
• Maintenance.

Why Review Safety Risk Management Procedures?

Aviation safety managers come and go. At the most volatile organizations, we see safety managers change every six months to a year.

The reasons safety managers leave their positions include:

• Promotions;
• Demotions (usually from poor safety audit results);
• Voluntary resignation (overworked, lack of management support); and

What Is Safety Performance Monitoring in Aviation SMS

Safety performance monitoring in aviation SMS is the primary way you will assess your safety program. This assessment happens in two different ways:

• Passively, such as in the case of high, system-level performance monitoring, such as trend identification; and

What Does Being an Aviation Safety Manager Mean?

Aviation safety managers are responsible for the development, operation, and continuous improvement of our world's aviation safety management systems (SMS). Safety managers facilitate the management of all safety-related issues according to ICAO's requirements following the four pillars:

Resistance to Aviation SMS

Considerable numbers of aviation managers in the United States and a few other countries groaned when ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) mandated that most aviation service providers implement formal aviation safety management systems (SMS).

Americans, by nature, are rebellious against government involvement in commercial activities.

Aviation Risk Management Cycle

Risk management has always been the core element of effective aviation safety programs. Before the advent of formal aviation safety management systems (SMS), aviation service providers managed operational risk in their everyday activities, but certainly not in a formal, structured process that has now become the adopted worldwide standard.

This standard has been initiated by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in 2006. You can learn more by reading the SMS guidance material.

Aviation SMS Implementations Have Risk!

Imagine you are the pilot recently assigned the "extra" task of being the safety manager of an existing aviation safety management system (SMS).

Or perhaps you are the safety manager who has worked hard for years and your SMS is running very smoothly. Now what?

Every aviation SMS implementation has a risk, just as any other project at your company.

When safety managers identify risk early, there is a higher chance that the aviation SMS implementation will succeed.