Enhancing Aviation Safety: Expert Insights, Tips, and Updates from SMS-Pro

Plans and Challenges of Implementation

Aviation safety management systems (SMS) implementation takes a long time to fully mature, usually three to five years if you are lucky.

What’s in a Name?

Identifying hazards is a big part of implementing a Safety Management System or SMS. Most of us assume that we know what a hazard is. It’s not a complicated word, we’re pretty sure we know what it means. No problem, right?

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

Presenting Key Performance Indicators to Managers

A KPI key performance indicator remains the most effective means to communicate and monitor aviation service providers' goals and objectives related to the aviation safety management system (SMS).

What It Means to Practice Reactive, Proactive, and Predictive Risk Management

If you want to practice reactive, proactive, and predictive risk management in aviation safety management systems (SMS), you first and foremost need to understand the difference between these types of risk management in modern aviation operations.

Understanding what each type of risk management is does not involve just understanding the “conceptual” difference, but how each practice differs in the actual operational environment.

What Is Safety Risk Management Process

The Safety Risk Management process (SRM) is where you outline and document your entire operational risk profile. Completing your SRM process is a major part of Phase 3 of SMS implementation.

Once you complete the initial documentation of your SRM process, you will need to continuously update it as new “inputs” are identified or implemented in your SMS,

What Are Goals for Best Practices of Hazard Reporting

Knowing best practices for hazard reporting in aviation safety management systems (SMS) is an attempt to better attain the goals of hazard reporting.

What are the goals of hazard reporting?

There are three main objectives:

Why Do We Measure Aviation Safety Performance?

Aviation safety managers are tasked with a Safety Assurance (SA) element labeled "Continuous Improvement." Not many aviation safety management systems (SMS) training courses go into much detail about

What Is a Fishbone Diagram?

Fishbone diagrams are an excellent risk management tool for the root-cause-focused aviation industry.

If you are wondering how to use fishbone diagrams, you first need to know what a fishbone diagram is.

A fishbone diagram derives its name from its fish-like appearance, with a head and several fins. Each “fin” or “branch” of a fishbone diagram describes a different element of the failure. The head of the fishbone describes the risk.

Why Use Aviation Key Performance Indicators as Goals or Objectives

Setting goals and objectives for your aviation safety management system (SMS) is a requirement, i.e., not optional.

Become accustomed to this requirement. Embrace it. Realize organizational value from this requirement and stop squandering an excellent opportunity to improve operations and show that the SMS can become the promised "profit driver."

Don't believe you can pencil whip this requirement like so many safety managers today.