ICAO and civil aviation authorities require SMS for many organizations. Even so, it's important to have buy-in from top management to make your SMS effective.
Lack of top management support remains among the top reasons an aviation SMS may fail.
Here are four, common-sense tips to help you earn top management support.
Topics: 1-Safety Policy
ICAO 9859 calls for aviation organizations to document their SMS. This can be a simple document referencing the policies and procedures or a detailed manual.
If you run a small operation, or many processes are already in place, a simple document might be all you need.
Most organizations will need a detailed manual. An SMS manual shares much in common with your quality manual if you conveniently have one.
Topics: 1-Safety Policy
In many of today's articles about aviation safety management systems, there is something about safety culture. Why? Safety culture ties into every part of your SMS, feeding it as your SMS nurtures your safety culture in return.
It’s a symbiotic relationship, like honeybees and flowers. Each one needs the other to grow and thrive. When your safety culture thrives, your SMS is easier to build and maintain.
Topics: Safety Culture
You’re probably familiar with the 4 Phases of SMS implementation outlined by ICAO 9859. Here, I’ll break them down another way, into 7 steps.
For a deep dive into how to use the 4 Phases of SMS implementation, start with How to Complete Phase 1 of Aviation SMS Implementation.
If, for whatever reason, the four phases don’t resonate with you, here is another way to look at building an SMS for aviation service providers. Much like the 4 phases, these are not steps that must be taken in order.
Topics: Aviation SMS Implementation
Internal SMS audits are an extremely important element in verifying the performance of every aviation safety management system (SMS). They’re also a neglected process in a surprisingly large number of smaller operators' SMS risk management schedules.
Just ask yourself, when was the last time you performed an internal audit on your aviation SMS implementation? Let’s also be clear about what we mean when we say “audit”, as this word is thrown around loosely.
Topics: Quality-Safety Management
Responsibility n. the state or fact of having a duty to deal with something or of having control over someone. (Oxford Dictionary)
Most of us learned about responsibility as children. Our parents gave us responsibilities like walking the dog or loading the dishwasher. As adults, we’re responsible for paying our bills, finishing our tasks at work, and doing the laundry.
Topics: Quality-Safety Management
Fishbone diagrams are a lesser known but very effective risk management tool in aviation safety management systems (SMS).
Fishbone diagrams get their name because of their fish-like appearance, with several fins and a head. Each “fin” or “branch” of a fishbone diagram describes a different element of the safety issue, such as “Man” and “Machine.”
Topics: Risk Management Software
Passing aviation safety audits is absolutely critical for safety managers, not to mention the accountable executive who is ultimately responsible for aviation safety management systems (SMS) performance.
Their jobs may depend on satisfactorily managing both:
Topics: 3-Safety Assurance
Understanding the fine lines between various stages of safety events in aviation risk management processes is extremely important.
Aviation safety management systems (SMS) have become so successful if not for the sole reason that they have taken an analytical, systematic approach to risk.
Topics: 2-Safety Risk Management
Aviation safety managers must be prepared for a never-ending chain of audits. This is a fact of life, whether you are working at:
Topics: 3-Safety Assurance
These two on-demand videos offer:
