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!

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.

What Is Safety Assurance in Aviation SMS

For an aviation safety management system (SMS) to be effective, the SMS must be monitored to assure 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).

Why Classifications Are Important in Risk Management Activities

The objective of aviation safety management systems (SMS) is proactively manage safety using structured risk management processes.

Once operators have these processes in place, it is the civil aviation authorities (CAA) expectation for aviation service providers to able to use all four SMS components (also known as pillars) to enhance their capability to identify safety issues and spot trends before they result in a

• near-miss,
• incident, or

What Is Data Mining in Aviation SMS?

Data mining is a critical, intermittent risk management activity safety managers need to perform in their aviation safety management systems (SMS) to organize, understand, and process collected safety data acquired during the organization's risk management processes.

Data mining techniques can be performed with a modest, home-grown aviation safety database and simple tools, or with complex software and professional, commercially available aviation safety databases.

Why It’s Important to Understand the Difference Between Assessment and Analysis

In aviation safety management systems (SMS), one of the main activities that senior managers and safety teams will undertake will be to

1. identify hazards;
2. evaluate risk associated with these hazards; and
3. determine whether existing risk controls are adequate.

Time to Be Honest About Your Aviation SMS Implementation

Creating successful aviation safety management systems (SMS) requires a great deal of honesty on the part of:

• accountable executives;
• operational department heads;
• safety management teams; and
• front-line employees.

In many cases, managers and employees alike tend to wear rose-colored glasses when evaluating operational safety and the efficacy of their SMS implementation.

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 you 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?

Aviation Safety Management Systems Are Defined by Interactions

Aviation safety management systems (SMS) need certain interactions or features within the system for it to be successful.

Interactions in aviation SMS always denote a relationship between two parts. These parts can be any aspect of the SMS implementation's moving parts, such as its:

• Employees;
• Managers;
• Interfaces (internal and external departments);

Why Aviation SMS Audits Are Important

The objective of Aviation Safety Management Systems (SMS) is to:

• Proactively manage safety to reduce risk;
• Identify potential safety hazards;
• Determine operational risk, and
• Implement control measures mitigating identified risk.