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 or aviation safety database to find the desired information. Over longer periods of time, this saved time and energy adds up to substantial sums, especially when you consider:
Real-time reporting is being able to see both data and results as data is collected. The benefits of real-time reporting center around accessing timely, actionable data related to the aviation SMS without waiting for IT data analysts to:
Online, web-based aviation SMS databases make data available across all dashboards and custom reports almost immediately after an event occurs. We say "almost immediately" because there is generally a few seconds of latency.
Latency is the delay you experience before data is displayed to the end-user in the form of related dashboards and reports. Latency includes the time required for the SMS database to respond to a user's request for a report, including time for:
Each of the above factors contributes to latency. For example, if you are using an old computer on a fast network, you may think that your SMS database is slow to respond. You may be wrong because modern browsers rely heavily on your computer's hard drive speed and processing power. Slow hardware causes many safety professionals to erroneously cast blame on:
One can argue that there are many advantages of having data available almost immediately. I could easily argue for:
As a manager, I would say the biggest advantage to real-time reporting is: reduced risk!
When managers have access to data in real time, they are able to respond more quickly to changing conditions and react to hazards. Of course, as safety professionals respond to identified hazards, they are able to begin risk management processes in a more timely fashion.
Let's take a simplified example of cutting my arm on the belt loader. We will assume that the quicker that I receive medical treatment the least amount of complications will arise.
There will be less risk due to complications when management can start treating the issue as quickly as possible. Furthermore, when management can easily communicate the risk to others, there is a reduced risk to the organization for repeat injuries.
The "Latest Reported Issues" safety chart is the kind of chart that saves considerable time. This chart can be used constantly by multiple user groups within the organization, including:
A real-time chart like the one at the right displays the latest report issues and the most essential information about those issues, including:
Accessing this information quickly is most useful for employees who have a low level of participation in the SMS. Such employees might not take the time to navigate through safety promotion activities or safety bulletins in order to see any recent and relevant reported issues.
This chart shows useful, relevant information with little required effort from all parties, whether these parties are:
In short, this chart is an excellent safety promotion tool to generate awareness and hopefully reduce the recurrence of common safety events.
In smaller or newer aviation SMS programs, it’s easier for safety professionals to manage issues as they are reported due to low reporting volume. In larger and more developed SMS programs with a higher volume of reported safety issues, this chart becomes increasingly valuable for a couple of reasons:
Moreover, keeping regular tabs on this chart allows management to get a sense of the hazard reporting culture over time.
Hazard reporting data for real-time reports come from your aviation SMS database. For example, to create the chart at the right, data are tracked simply by displaying:
To generate this chart in real-time is only possible with an aviation safety database. You could use a simple spreadsheet, though it would only be real-time if your spreadsheet was directly connected to your organizational SMS database.
This chart should be the concern of all employees for the following reasons:
This safety promotional chart should be readily available to all employees whenever possible.
Several other charts work well in conjunction with this chart. These other aviation safety charts are:
All of these charts tie directly into recently reported issues and give you a comprehensive picture of how many issues are reported, when they are reported, and who is reporting them.
For more information about these safety charts and others like them, please contact us.
To see aviation SMS software in action, request a live demo below.
Last updated November 2024.