SMS Pro Aviation Safety Software Blog 4 Airlines & Airports

What Is a Key Performance Indicator?

Answering the question, what is a key performance indicator, is not exactly as straightforward as it may seem.

This is because key performance indicators, known commonly as KPIs, have multiple uses in aviation safety management systems (SMS).

Most obviously, as “performance” in the name implies, KPIs are data metrics (i.e. “Indicators”) used to track “performance” in aviation SMS.

What Is a Key Performance Indicator in Aviation SMS?

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are data metrics used to track performance in aviation safety management systems (SMS). This “performance” was not intended to measure only safety, but also quality and financial performance as well.

Understanding what is a key performance indicator is an essential component of being able to identify signs of good KPIs.

Here are the 4 most important things you need to understand about what KPIs are (ideally),

What Is Operational Risk for Airline SMS

Operation risk is a primary concern of airline safety management systems (SMS). Just as in traditional safety programs, modern SMS implementations will revolve around identifying hazards and controlling these safety events.

In a formal aviation SMS implementation, there are two inter-connected components:

• Safety risk management (SRM); and
• Safety assurance (SA).

Why You Need to Know the Difference Between Reactive, Proactive, and Predictive Risk Management

Aviation safety managers and employees who understand the real difference between reactive, predictive, and proactive risk management activities gain considerable benefit for generating good safety performance.

The fact is that these three types of risk management strategies are often misunderstood and/or confused.

Can you describe the difference?

Most Common Misunderstanding in Aviation Risk Management

We run across this time and time again in aviation risk management programs: safety management teams confuse hazards and risks, and consequently also confuse risks and consequences.

To be frank, misunderstanding the difference between these three things can have far-reaching repercussions on your ability to practice risk management in your aviation safety management system (SMS).

These repercussions happen when safety management teams either:

Why Safety Management Gets Safety Objectives Wrong

Somewhat surprisingly, in aviation safety management systems (SMS), safety objectives are often quite misunderstood. Experienced safety management may have a slightly misguided understanding of safety objectives.

New safety management will simply ask, what are safety objectives? Do you know how to properly describe safety objectives?

Some of the most common errors made with safety objectives are:

Goal of Risk Assessment Questions

Before making risk assessments, there are several important questions to ask about the issue in question. These questions are extremely significant, as they affect how you will rank the issue and how you will respond to it.

You will commonly perform risk assessments on reported safety issues, such as

• Accidents;
• Incidents; and
• Irregularities.

What Is Trend Analysis in Aviation SMS

Simply put, trend analysis in aviation SMS is an activity that is used to target patterns in your safety program that might otherwise be “lost in the noise” of your safety data.

Patterns can be related to behavior, occurrences, or other aspects of your safety program. Patterns are identified within your chosen time period.

You may identify trends that are:

• Weekly;
• Monthly;

What Is Aviation Safety Policy

An Aviation Safety Policy is a document in aviation safety management systems (SMS) that outlines:

• What your organization’s safety value are;
• Expectations from employees and stakeholders;
• What safety commitments your organization is willing to make, as directed by the accountable executive; and
• Which resources employees can use to fulfill their SMS duties and responsibilities (policies, procedures, accountabilities, tools)?

Inadequate Safety Performance Compels Aviation SMS Implementation

The level of measurable aviation safety performance is not the same across the world, country-to-country, or airline-to-airline. Some countries are notorious for having substandard aviation safety records and some do not follow international standards, including Bangladesh, Haiti, Honduras, and more.

Even within countries that have accepted and actively practice international aviation safety standards, the level of safety performance within the industry remains unequal.