SMS Pro Aviation Safety Software Blog 4 Airlines & Airports

Effective Use of Power in Aviation SMS

Aviation safety managers around the world are charged with implementing required aviation safety management systems (SMS). SMS implementations affect entire organizations and not simply a single department, such as:

• Flight ops;
• Ground ops; or
• Maintenance.

Hazards Are Dynamic

Aviation safety management systems (SMS) have the objective to:

• proactively manage safety,
• identify potential hazards,
• determine risk, and
• implement measures that mitigate the risk.

Furthermore, an aviation SMS affords operators more opportunities to identify safety issues and spot trends before they result in "The Accident."

Why Review Safety Risk Management Procedures?

Aviation safety managers come and go. At the most volatile organizations, we see safety managers change every six months to a year.

The reasons safety managers leave their positions include:

• Promotions;
• Demotions (usually from poor safety audit results);
• Voluntary resignation (overworked, lack of management support); and

What Is Safety Performance Monitoring in Aviation SMS

Safety performance monitoring in aviation SMS is the primary way you will assess your safety program. This assessment happens in two different ways:

• Passively, such as in the case of high, system-level performance monitoring, such as trend identification; and
• Actively, such as in the case of daily performance monitoring of safety issues, including their associated hazards, risks, and control measures identified during issue management.

What Is Fatigue Risk Management

Fatigue is one of the most important factors in overall operational safety. It’s so important that most aviation safety management systems adopt additional and specific measures to combat fatigue. Fatigue risk management includes:

• Fatigue monitoring;
• Fatigue controls;
• Fatigue data gathering; and

What Is Cybersecurity

The aviation industry relies heavily on computers for every touchpoint of aviation service, from ground to flight operations. Cybersecurity is a term that refers to the safety of such computer systems – it is also called info-security. If nefarious individuals were able to get access to some of your computer systems, they could pose a catastrophic threat to flight operations.

What Does Being an Aviation Safety Manager Mean?

Aviation safety managers are responsible for the development, operation, and continuous improvement of our world's aviation safety management systems (SMS). Safety managers facilitate the management of all safety-related issues according to ICAO's requirements following the four pillars:

Healthy for the Program, Healthy for the SMS Manager

Proactive aviation risk management is an organizational-wide effort towards identifying risk and mitigating hazards before an incident occurs.

For an aviation safety management system (SMS) to get to a point of proactive aviation safety, there will be considerable upfront work required. As you probably know from personal experience – aviation safety managers:

• Spend years implementing their aviation SMS

Resistance to Aviation SMS

Considerable numbers of aviation managers in the United States and a few other countries groaned when ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) mandated that most aviation service providers implement formal aviation safety management systems (SMS).

Americans, by nature, are rebellious against government involvement in commercial activities. This is why the U.S. is further behind the formal SMS implementations than a few other parts of the world, such as Australia, Canada, and now the European Union.

Why This Aviation Safety Chart Is Important

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