SMS Pro Aviation Safety Software Blog 4 Airlines & Airports

What Is a Risk Matrix

A risk matrix is a tool you will use to assess safety concerns. The matrix allows you to rank risk and provide visual cues on safety acceptability.

The risk matrix is a standard tool for assessing safety issues in aviation SMS and is recommended by ICAO and other regulatory authorities for assessing issues.

You should develop your risk matrix at the onset of managing reported issues. It involves:

What Are ICAO Hazard Identification Compliance Requirements

ICAO’s hazard identification compliance requirements are twofold:

• (2.1.1) Develop formal process for hazard identification; and
• (2.1.2) Use reactive, proactive, and predictive to identify hazards.

Being compliant with these requirements involves, like anything else in SMS, doing and documenting.

How to Quantify Resistance to Your SMS Using This Article

Grab a spare pen and paper so you can write down some notes. What we are looking for is a total score. It works like this:

• Score is on a scale from 0 to 25
• Lower number is better, indicating less resistance
• Higher number is worse, indicating higher resistance
• Read through each section of this article, learning about each piece of resistance

Why Evaluate and Justify Risk Controls in Aviation SMS

If there is one thing all aviation compliance authority guidelines (including ICAO) agree upon, it’s that your aviation safety mitigation controls need to be thoroughly analyzed BEFORE you implement them.

Safety mitigation controls are the bedrock of your risk mitigation strategy.

Safety mitigation controls are also commonly called:

What Is Confidentiality in Aviation SMS

Confidentiality in aviation SMS refers to how much personal information should be made available to your organization. By personal information, we are mainly talking about personal information in safety reports, such as people involved or the name of the reporter.

When safety issues are reported, employees may or may not have access to details about the reported issue.

What Is ICAO’s Requirement for Risk Assessment and Mitigation

Element 2.2 of ICAO’s requirements is for you to develop and maintain a process to:

• Analyze risk;
• Assess risk; and
• Control risk.

While just one requirement, ICAO provides quite a bit of guidance on what this process should look like. There are many considerations in this step, and while ICAO doesn’t explicitly say, “Do it this way,” they provide a lot of meaningful guidance on what a best practice would look like.

What Is Safety Performance Monitoring and Measurement

Safety performance monitoring and measurement is an extremely important part of Safety Assurance. It’s how you verify the safety performance of your organization.

By safety performance, we are talking about:

What Is Change Management

Management of change in aviation SMS is a formal process for facilitating changes in safety programs. Usually, this process is instigated when required changes are going to affect higher-level, systems in the SMS. Smaller changes are handled with corrective actions.

The basic tenants of management of change in aviation SMS are:

• Airlines, airports, and other aviation service providers establish a formal, repeatable process for change;
• All relevant stakeholders are involved in the change;

What Is Aviation Safety Policy

An aviation safety policy is a document in safety management systems that outlines the core, important safety information that underlies your SMS.

This required document should outline your organization’s;

• Safety values;
• Safety commitments; and
• Important safety resources (policies, procedures, accountabilities).

Apathy: The SMS Killer

Apathy is the bane of any aviation safety management system (SMS).

Apathy is the most insidious kind of resistance any aviation safety manager will face. It can take many forms, such as:

• Lack of budget approval
• Lack of participation