SMS Pro Aviation Safety Software Blog 4 Airlines & Airports

Tyler Britton

350,000 words and counting on safety risk management concepts, guidance, tools, and best practices.

Recent Posts

6 Signs of a Mature Aviation Safety Culture - With Resources

Posted by Tyler Britton on Feb 19, 2025 5:30:00 AM

Aviation Safety Culture Is Not a Concept

As I’ve discussed before, “safety culture” gets thrown around rather loosely in the aviation industry.

"Safety culture" is the kind of thing that is vitally important, but so undernourished in terms of actually discussing what it means and what it looks like, that you sort of roll your eyes and with a wink and a nod say, “Oh yea... safety culture.

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Topics: 2-Safety Risk Management

How to Find Underlying Causes in Your Aviation SMS

Posted by Tyler Britton on Feb 5, 2025 6:00:00 AM

What Are Underlying Causes in Aviation SMS

Underlying causes in aviation safety management systems (SMS) are the bridge between reactive and proactive risk management.

Underlying causes are the “input” for safety issues because they reinforce the actions and behaviors that cause incidents to happen.

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Topics: 3-Safety Assurance

5 Types of Aviation Safety Managers

Posted by Tyler Britton on Jan 29, 2025 6:15:00 AM

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

How to Review Safety Issues in SMS Programs

Posted by Tyler Britton on Jan 22, 2025 6:00:00 AM

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 Your Emergency Response Plan Should Include

Posted by Tyler Britton on Jan 15, 2025 6:00:00 AM

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

How to Use Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) in Aviation Safety Management

Posted by Tyler Britton on Dec 18, 2024 6:00:00 AM

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

How to Practice Reactive, Proactive, and Predictive Risk Management in Aviation SMS

Posted by Tyler Britton on Nov 6, 2024 5:30:00 AM

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

20 Questions for Your Safety Risk Management Process in Aviation SMS [With Free Checklists]

Posted by Tyler Britton on Oct 30, 2024 6:00:00 AM

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

Best Practices for Hazard Reporting in Aviation SMS - With Examples

Posted by Tyler Britton on Oct 23, 2024 6:00:00 AM

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

5 Steps to Create Fishbone Diagrams in Aviation SMS

Posted by Tyler Britton on Oct 9, 2024 6:00:00 AM

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

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