SMS Pro Aviation Safety Software Blog 4 Airlines & Airports

Hazards Are Dynamic

Aviation safety management systems (SMS) have the objective to:

• proactively manage safety,
• identify potential hazards,
• determine risk, and
• implement measures that mitigate the risk.

Furthermore, an aviation SMS affords operators more opportunities to identify safety issues and spot trends before they result in "The Accident."

What Is Fatigue Risk Management

Fatigue is one of the most important factors in overall operational safety. It’s so important that most aviation safety management systems adopt additional and specific measures to combat fatigue. Fatigue risk management includes:

• Fatigue monitoring;
• Fatigue controls;
• Fatigue data gathering; and

What Is Cybersecurity

The aviation industry relies heavily on computers for every touchpoint of aviation service, from ground to flight operations. Cybersecurity is a term that refers to the safety of such computer systems – it is also called info-security. If nefarious individuals were able to get access to some of your computer systems, they could pose a catastrophic threat to flight operations.

Healthy for the Program, Healthy for the SMS Manager

Proactive aviation risk management is an organizational-wide effort towards identifying risk and mitigating hazards before an incident occurs.

For an aviation safety management system (SMS) to get to a point of proactive aviation safety, there will be considerable upfront work required. As you probably know from personal experience – aviation safety managers:

• Spend years implementing their aviation SMS

Why This Aviation Safety Chart Is Important

Having "real-time" safety charts saves aviation safety managers, executives, and employees a lot of work and keeps them informed of the latest hazards and risks affecting aviation-centric operations.

Having access to real-time safety charts allows management to monitor your SMS program at a glance, rather than having to navigate through your software

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.

What Is Proactive Risk Management

Proactive risk management is often esteemed as the “best” type of risk management. This is because proactive risk management usually matures later in SMS implementation. Also, it involves identifying and stopping issues before they occur.

ICAO Requirements for Training and Education

ICAO’s requirements for training and education are largely focused on ensuring that you train and document all employees in your organization on core SMS and safety information. It is specific in its guidance documentation that role-based training is important. It also recommends that you have specific training for different tiers in your organization.

The requirements are listed as such:

Purpose of Risk Analysis

In aviation SMS, you analyze risk to break an issue down into individual, controllable parts. Based on your analysis, you can assess the safety issue, and understand both what actions need to be taken, and what safety factors need to be better controlled.

During risk analysis, the issue should be broken down into the following parts:

• What the issue in question is – is the reported issue a hazard, a negative outcome, etc.

Knowing Who Is Involved in Your Aviation SMS

For every aviation safety management system (SMS), the accountable executive must ensure the SMS is properly implemented and performing in all areas of the organization. To achieve this end, safety management teams work to ensure that all personnel participate in the aviation SMS.

Wishes and reality are two different ideas. The reality is that most employees care about the SMS as much as the company's traditional safety program.