SMS Pro Aviation Safety Software Blog 4 Airlines & Airports

Why Fatigue Monitoring Matters

Fatigue is the sixth of the Dirty Dozen Human Factors.

Fatigue has traditionally received a lot of attention from flight crew due to the dramatic effects of the different types of fatigue on pilot and cabin crew performance.

One of the primary challenges associated with fatigue in the workplace is that the symptoms of fatigue are other Human Factors.

Hazard Reporting More Than Just Hazards

“Hazard reporting” is a bit of a misnomer because employees report much more than hazards. Hazards are simply one type of thing that people report. Perhaps a more accurate expression for hazard reporting would be “issue reporting.”

Hazard reporting in SMS includes all types of concerns, such as:

• Quality concerns;
• Operational concerns;

Types of Aviation Safety Culture

While it is normal to say that safety culture is something you should pay attention to, it might be better to say that safety culture are things you should pay attention to.

Safety culture in aviation organizations is more than just one thing. There are multiple “types” of safety culture.

The five faces of safety culture you should consider are:

1. Safety commitment
2. Safety behavior

Why Identifying the Difference Between Hazards and Risks Matters

One of the biggest problems in aviation risk management is the misuse or misunderstanding of aviation risk management definitions and concepts. The most common mistakes happen when it comes to the idea of a hazard vs risk.

Often, these two items are either:

• Used interchangeably, as if they were the same thing;
• Misidentified, where a safety manager misidentifies a risk occurrence as a hazard occurrence; or
• The terms are used much too broadly.

What Is a Hazard

Hazards are central to the entire process of developing safe operational environments.

A hazard fulfills the following:

• Is a dangerous condition, such as a situation, behavior, object, etc., that poses an unacceptable level of danger;

Goals for Hazard Reporting

Knowing what issues employees should be reporting in your SMS requires you to always keep the primary goals of hazard reporting in mind:

First, you need to gather data. You use data to:

• Understand your SMS performance;
• Monitor effectiveness of risk controls;
• Mitigate safety concerns; and
• Know which issues are most relevant to your operations.

Human Factors in Aviation SMS: Beyond the “Dirty”

Unfortunately, the concept of Human Factors in aviation safety management systems (SMS) has historically carried an undeniable, negative impression about the role of human in safety issues (as well as other issues).

Just consider the synonymous term associated with Human Factors: "The Dirty Dozen".

Furthermore, the Dirty Dozen focuses exclusively on the negative aspects of human attitudes and behavior in safety incidents. In other words, in practical application, Human Factors are used as a problem to be controlled.

What Does Documenting Aviation SMS Mean

Aviation safety management systems (SMS) documentation is probably the most critical component of aviation SMS design.

Documentation must be clear, accurate, current, and easy to access. Documentation reflects SMS compliance and SMS performance.

Though "documentation" is a simple idea, making sure your documentation is well managed is quite difficult in actual practice. This is because:

What Is Proactive Risk Management

Proactive risk management for safety managers involves risk management activities that are dedicated to recognizing potential concerns before those concerns actualize. Proactive risk management does this by:

• Identifying trends in important safety data; and
• Reviewing risk controls, policies, procedures, and other safety resources for effectiveness.

Hazard Reporting Process Is for More than Just Hazards

The idea of “hazard reporting” is a bit inaccurate because employees should be reporting more than just hazards.

Hazards are just one type of concern that employees should report. When we are talking about hazard reporting, what we are really talking about is “issue reporting.”

Issue reporting includes many levels of concerns, such as:

• Identified root causes in the operational environment;
• Hazardous sources and other potentially dangerous conditions;