SMS Pro Aviation Safety Software Blog 4 Airlines & Airports

What Is a Management System

This article is originally inspired by a rather insightful video discussing the interplay between safety management and quality assurance.

A management system is a set of processes used to manage “findings” during operations.

“Findings” are simply things you discover in your operations that are less than ideal. We can also call findings “issues.” There can be many types of issues, such as:

• Safety;
• Security;

Why Definition of a Hazard Matters

Accuracy is extremely important.

Much of the bureaucracy of safety management systems depend on correct and specific understanding of safety concepts. Misunderstanding definitions in SMS is synonymous with misunderstanding what a safety element is and can compromise how that safety element is:

• Controlled;
• Documented; and
• Accounted for.

Understanding What Aviation Safety Culture Is

“Safety culture” is a phrase that gets thrown around a lot in aviation safety management systems (SMS) as a vague reference to different aspects of safety.

Understanding the meaning of aviation safety culture is less a practice in philosophy as it is recognition of what it looks like in actual practice for:

• Safety management’s responsibility;
• Employees’ responsibilities;

Not So Obvious

The line between reactive and proactive safety workplaces is unfortunately not as concrete as anyone would like. If it were so obvious, many organizations would be far less reactive. The fact is that most cultures are less proactive than they would like to be.

Granted, there are some obvious indicators that an organization is only responding to accidents rather than actively trying to prevent them. For example, we generally understand reactive safety workplaces as only “putting out fires” as they come up. But accepting that reactive workplaces are only this is a rather superficial assessment.

Certification vs. Qualification

Last year my wife went to the dentist to have a filling put into one of her teeth. She had severe pain for several days, went back to the dentist, and found out that he had put the filling in backward. He replaced it with a new filling but the next day it fell out of her tooth.

We chose a different dentist this time around.

We’ve all experienced this – you go to the doctor, dentist, etc., and it becomes painfully obvious very quickly that the person working on you should have chosen a different career.

What Is an Acceptable Level of Safety (ALoS)

The objective of aviation safety management systems (SMS) is to

1. Proactively manage safety,
2. Identify and report potential safety hazards,
3. Determine risk to operational safety; and
4. Implement risk controls to mitigate identified risk.

Definition of Hazard Identification

Hazard identification in aviation SMS is the baseline performance needed for a successful safety program. It is the first element of the Safety Risk Management component of the 4 Pillars of aviation safety.

At face value, hazard identification is fairly simple: awareness and recognition of potential danger in the operational environment. In aviation safety management systems (SMS), hazard identification is complicated by the fact that:

Things to Prepare for Aviation SMS Audits

There are many aviation audit checklists available online.

While these checklists offer many specific tasks you need to perform, few checklists offer a broad overview of things that airports, airlines, and other aviation service providers should do to augment audit performance.

The purpose of aviation safety management systems (SMS) is to continuously improve safety performance while also improving the business' operational processes. This continuous improvement is expected to be realized by:

Safety Benefits of Aviation Safety Management Systems

The most obvious benefits of implementing an aviation safety management system (SMS) are the marked improvements in safety.

Just to give you an idea of exactly how successful aviation SMS implementations have been, the only statistic you need to know is that 20 years ago there were four times as many workplace accidents as last year.

It’s difficult to get data on total workplace incidents, but I am sure that the statistic for workplace incidents last year vs. 20 years ago is even more dramatic.

Questions Come First in Safety Management

The unfortunate fact is that many managers in aviation safety management systems (SMS) don’t start asking serious questions until their SMS is either “stuck” or in trouble.

Questions and answers need to come at the beginning of SMS implementation. Your answers to fundamental questions about safety management will be a guideline through the entire process of your SMS' implementation.

I can’t help but observe that aviation oversight agencies are constantly reinforcing the idea that there is one right answer to every situation.