SMS Pro Aviation Safety Software Blog 4 Airlines & Airports

Definition of Risk

Risk, in its general form, is what is most often cited when discussing the definition of risk, and the idea of risk.

Risk in general is:

• The composite of severity and likelihood used to rank risk;
• Used in Risk Assessment; and
• Generally spoken in the context of, “The risk of [something bad].”

What Is Reactive Risk Management in Aviation SMS

Reactive risk management in aviation SMS is a technique that, mainly, involves the ability to respond to safety issues (or other types of issues, such as compliance, quality, etc.).

Reactive management is a response based approach to risk.

Practically, this means that anytime managers or front-line employees respond to an active threat in the operational environment (front-line employees)

Building Hazard Reporting Culture Through Convenience

If you want to improve your aviation SMS program’s hazard reporting culture, the first thing you should do is to see if you can make hazard reporting easier.

“Easier” is a tricky word.

Are manual hazard reporting forms easy? The long answer begins with: it depends on the situation. The short answer is: sometimes yes, sometimes no.

It’s the “sometimes no” that you should care about. In your SMS program, in which situation is it not convenient to report issues?

Definition of Acceptable Level of Safety in Aviation SMS

Acceptable Level of Safety (ALoS) in Aviation SMS is how you define the maximum level of risk you are willing to accept as “reasonable.”

When I say "you," I'm actually referring to the person who has the authority to accept risk for a particular area of operations. This may include:

• Accountable executive;
• Department heads;

Why Quality Management Is So Important for Safety

Quality management systems (QMS) are the big brother of safety management systems (SMS). They are often depicted as having conflicting interests.

Unfortunately, this is true in many organizations because the bottom line (money) is pushed more than safety.

QMS and SMS don’t have to be in conflict. In fact, if given the time and resources, they can integrate and significantly strengthen your organization’s:

Definition of Risk and Risk Occurrence

The concept of risk changes depending on which context you use it. This is not comfortable for many safety managers who insist that risk is simply one thing.

It’s important that safety professionals keep an open mind to variations in how different safety terms are used.

Awareness of variation improves communication and understanding of the risk management process.

There are two main contexts in which the word risk is used:

What Is Safety Manager Performance?

Safety manager performance is the ability of safety managers to drive performance in aviation SMS. “Drive performance” can mean either:

• Active improvement in different areas of the SMS;
• Active sustaining of quality performance; and
• Active mitigation of safety issues.

Why Department Head Charts Are Particularly Important

Traditionally, department heads are the individuals responsible for managing corrective and preventive actions associated with reported issues.

Managing an issue involves making sure that corrective-preventative actions (CPAs) are implemented appropriately. Now, let’s not get hung up on the word “department head” - it can act as a placeholder for the role in your organization that manages issues.

For example, some organizations will have a safety manager who manages issues.

When We Say Promote Safety, What Are We Actually Promoting

Safety promotion plays a crucial role in your aviation safety culture. So when we talk about promoting your SMS, we are really talking about how to build a safety culture in your organization.

By far, safety promotion is often the most neglected portion of SMS. One, promoting the safety program is difficult, and two, it is vastly underrepresented in most aviation compliance authorities’ requirements.

What the Issue Management Life Cycle Is

The life cycle of hazard and risk occurrence (including other types of occurrences) encompasses the entirety of an adverse event to final consequences.

The process that follows the hazard/risk occurrence life cycle is the issue management life cycle.

The issue management life cycle includes all the steps management takes from identifying an issue to fixing the issue (and beyond this, monitoring the fix).