SMS Pro Aviation Safety Software Blog 4 Airlines & Airports

Difficulty of Selecting KPIs in Aviation Safety Programs

Selecting key performance indicators (KPIs) in aviation safety management systems (SMS) is neither simple nor always intuitive. In addition to being time-consuming and costly, selecting and monitoring KPIs can also be a stressful experience.

Lives depend on choosing good KPIs. Your job may depend on selecting good KPIs.

Fortunately, selecting KPIs is helped by the fact that:

Disadvantaged Part-Time Safety Managers

Incredible challenges assail aviation safety managers at smaller operations who are implementing aviation safety management systems (SMS). In short, their organizational size and make-up present a very real hazard that must be recognized and mitigated.

Recognizing the hazard, as well as awareness of possible remedies will be a first step toward overcoming these SMS implementation challenges.

How SMS Affects Companies’ Finances

While the safety benefits are often stressed far more than the financial benefits of aviation safety management systems (SMS), this is a mistake. When companies benefit financially from a safety initiative, what this means is that they benefit financially because the safety initiative is actually improving safety.

Return on investment for aviation SMS implementations is actually not as confusing to calculate as you might think. When we are talking about return on investment, we are talking about how an aviation SMS affects companies' finances.

First Thing to Prepare for Aviation SMS Audits

Audits can be extremely stressful. Especially if things haven't been going well in your aviation safety management system (SMS) in terms of performance or implementation progress.

At this point, there's only one thing that you need to do before anything else:

• Relax.

No audit is going to be perfect. There are going to be findings. Obviously, the fewer, the better.

Difference Between Risk and Risk Event

Last year we released a Hazard and Risk Competency Quiz, which deals a lot with the concept of Risk Events. Overall the assessment – which was purposefully very difficult – was very successful.

We received a lot of feedback about Risk Events, and for the most part aviation safety managers fall into 3 categories concerning Risk Events. If you are familiar with the assessment, which category do you fall into?

Aviation Is Risky Business

Aviation, like any business, has elements of risk.

Whether it is a safety issue or a cost issue, the risk is very much a part of the aviation industry's past, present, and future.

I believe it takes a certain kind of person to be successful in aviation risk management.

Yet what does success look like for an aviation safety professional?

Safety Risk Management Process

If there’s one takeaway for new professionals in aviation safety management, it’s that aviation risk management is a process. It is not a single, solid “thing.”

This process is cyclical and can be identified by several stages that form a systematic approach to safety risk management, including:

1. Establishing acceptable levels of safety, including defining likelihood and severity;
2. Hazard identification, including identification of risks, hazard mechanisms, and other safety weaknesses;

What Is Aviation Safety Culture

By definition, aviation safety culture is an organization’s commitment to safety. I tend to find this definition limiting.

Perhaps a better way to understand safety culture is the means of realizing safety success, in which commitment is just one part.

Of course, safety culture in the aviation industry needs to be coupled with an organized, compliant aviation safety management system (SMS) in order to increase an organization's ability for safety success.

What Is a Corrective Action - a Definition

A corrective action is a risk management process, tool or activity used to correct any undesirable element of an aviation service provider's operational system. Most commonly, the term "corrective action" is used loosely to represent "corrective actions and preventative actions," or CPAs. You may also see corrective actions called CAPAs (corrective action preventative action) or RCAs (recommended corrective actions), though CPA is the most recognized acronym globally in the aviation industry.

What Is Documentation in Aviation SMS?

In November 2006, the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO) mandated that all member states implement formal aviation safety management systems (SMS). Each member state's civil aviation authority (CAA) is responsible for providing oversight to ensure the operators required to implement the aviation SMS comply.

Aviation SMS implementations need to be accounted for in 2 main ways.