Stu Martin
Stu Martin is an accomplished aerospace safety engineer with over 25 years of experience in the aviation industry. Beginning his career on the ramp, Stu developed a hands-on understanding of aircraft operations, maintenance, and safety protocols. His journey from ground operations to engineering has equipped him with a unique perspective on aviation safety, blending practical expertise with technical rigor. Stu has contributed to numerous safety initiatives, including the development of risk assessment frameworks and incident investigation protocols, earning recognition for his commitment to enhancing operational safety. A respected voice in the field, he continues to advocate for robust safety cultures within aviation organizations worldwide.
Managerial Style Is Critical for Safety Managers
How aviation safety managers conduct oversight is extremely important for the success or failure of the aviation safety management system (SMS).
The particular management style of a safety manager determines how willingly employees will interact with aviation SMS. Will they sincerely accept the demands placed on them by the SMS? Or will they rebel silently and look for ways to subvert the SMS?
What kind of style do you use as a safety manager?
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Topics:
Quality-Safety Management
Which Issues Should Be Reviewed?
Different organizations will have different requirements when they review safety issues. Whether or not you are reviewing low-risk issues is up to you. While we recommend reviewing all issues, the reality is that due to time and resource constraints, this is not always feasible.
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Topics:
3-Safety Assurance
What Is an Emergency Response Plan (ERP)
The actions employees take immediately in response to an emergency will greatly affect the outcome of the emergency. In such situations, employees’ actions may largely be the deciding factor between catastrophic consequences and a scary but benign outcome.
Consequences can be
- financial,
- environment,
- material, or
- personal (i.e.) loss of life.
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Topics:
Quality-Safety Management
What Is Plan Do Check Act (PDCA)
Plan Do Check Act is a simple but effective process to use when implementing risk controls through corrective-preventative actions. The PDCA process is initiated after you discover some deficiency/weakness in your SMS that poses an unacceptable level of safety, such as after an aviation SMS audit, reported safety concern, or trend analysis.
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Topics:
3-Safety Assurance
What It Means to Practice Reactive, Proactive, and Predictive Risk Management
If you want to practice reactive, proactive, and predictive risk management in aviation safety management systems (SMS), you first and foremost need to understand the difference between these types of risk management in modern aviation operations.
Understanding what each type of risk management is does not involve just understanding the “conceptual” difference, but how each practice differs in the actual operational environment.
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Topics:
2-Safety Risk Management
What Is Safety Risk Management Process
The Safety Risk Management process (SRM) is where you outline and document your entire operational risk profile. Completing your SRM process is a major part of Phase 3 of SMS implementation.
Once you complete the initial documentation of your SRM process, you will need to continuously update it as new “inputs” are identified or implemented in your SMS,
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Topics:
2-Safety Risk Management
What Are Goals for Best Practices of Hazard Reporting
Knowing best practices for hazard reporting in aviation safety management systems (SMS) is an attempt to better attain the goals of hazard reporting.
What are the goals of hazard reporting?
There are three main objectives:
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Topics:
2-Safety Risk Management
What Is a Fishbone Diagram?
Fishbone diagrams are an excellent risk management tool for the root-cause-focused aviation industry.
If you are wondering how to use fishbone diagrams, you first need to know what a fishbone diagram is.
A fishbone diagram derives its name from its fish-like appearance, with a head and several fins. Each “fin” or “branch” of a fishbone diagram describes a different element of the failure. The head of the fishbone describes the risk.
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Topics:
2-Safety Risk Management
What Are Leading Indicators in Safety Programs?
Leading indicators in aviation safety management systems (SMS) are:
- The “input” of the program;
- Identify precursors that directly correlate to future performance;
- Identify technical or organizational weaknesses;
- Are underlying causes for safety success and failure; and
- Identify warning signs.
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Topics:
3-Safety Assurance
What Are the 3 Best Aviation SMS Risk Management Tools?
Aviation safety management systems (SMS) have many required components that must be monitored and documented regularly. Much of this gathered data assists in enhancing operational processes by providing managers with actionable, decision-making value.
To assist with this onerous task, aviation SMS risk management tools are fantastic additions to every SMS repertoire – if you use them.
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Topics:
2-Safety Risk Management