SMS Pro Aviation Safety Software Blog 4 Airlines & Airports

What Is an Aviation Safety Manager in an SMS Program?

The aviation safety manager (SM) is the individual charged with developing, monitoring, and improving the safety management system (SMS) of the service provider.

The safety manager acts as the primary reference point for safety management issues in the organization. Safety professionals must understand risk management processes and much more.

Appointing a safety manager is a crucial step in establishing the SMS' organizational structure and planning for the aviation SMS implementation.

What Are the Elements of Distraction Regarding Human Factors?

Whether you are a pilot or an aviation maintenance engineer, many tasks require focused attention to detail. It doesn't require a human factors training company to tell you that disastrous results may occur when workers are unable to maintain focus on their tasks.

Aviation safety managers must recognize how important a role distraction plays in their aviation safety management systems, particularly:

Why Is Teamwork Important?

Teamwork is a word used often in the workplace. We’ve all heard that it’s important to work together. Why cover the same ground again?

Lack of teamwork can have serious safety consequences. In aviation, our jobs affect others. Even when we seem to be working on our own, our work ties into other parts of the operation.

Safety is part of being a good teammate and teamwork plays a key role in safety. As such, we all take on responsibility for being good teammates and keeping each other safe.

Safety Management Systems Bore Most Employees

Unlike those who study and create safety management systems (SMS), to the average employee these programs can be boring.

It’s not that the average employees don’t value safety, it’s just that they need to see how these programs are beneficial to them personally.

So how can we change our safety culture and encourage participation in aviation safety management systems? Below are six ideas on how to get people involved:

What Is the Hazard Reporting Process

Simply put, the hazard reporting process is the primary mode of data acquisition in aviation safety management systems (SMS). Being such, a poor hazard reporting process can literally break your SMS. If that sounds unrealistic, it’s not.

Without data:

• Your risk management process with have nothing to manage;
• Your safety assurance process will have nothing to assure; and

What Is an Internal Aviation SMS Audit

An internal aviation safety management system (SMS) audit is a process you used to verify that certain actions are taking place in your SMS.

Audits are a safety assurance activity that is most commonly used to broadly assess whether or not aviation service providers can demonstrate continuous improvement of the SMS.

Understand What Is Proactive Risk Management

Proactive safety management is often upheld as the second highest form of risk management after "predictive risk management." This is because being able to demonstrate proactive risk management activities generally doesn’t happen until an aviation safety management system (SMS) matures beyond Phase 2.

The primary goals of proactive management of safety are:

• Identify precursors that lead to risk;
• Identify threats before they become dangerous; and

What Is an Internal Aviation SMS Audit

An internal aviation SMS audit is how you evaluate any part of your SMS.

On the one hand, you use such audits to ensure that certain actions are taking place in your SMS, such as SRM operations or continuous improvement.

Safety programs with good audit processes have multiple processes. Each audit process will audit a different aspect of your aviation safety program, such as:

Aviation Safety Management System Symptoms and Underlying Causes

An aviation safety management system (SMS) functions almost like a living, breathing entity. The SMS' required safety assurance processes facilitate improvements through continual verification and follow-up actions. Regardless of your SMS maturity level, the SMS continually evolves.

Every SMS has many moving parts that work together to reduce risk and comply with regulatory requirements. These individual components can exhibit healthy signs, as well as symptoms of underlying problems.

What Are the Top 5 KPIs in Aviation Safety

We recently analyzed the key performance indicators (KPIs) of hundreds of aviation service providers around the globe, and used our data to assess what the most common KPI concerns are for the aviation industry.

The top 5 KPIs in aviation safety based on our data are KPIs related to:

1. Death;
2. Processes not followed;
3. Bird/wildlife strike;