Acceptable Level of Safety (ALoS) in Aviation SMS is how you define the maximum level of risk you are willing to accept as “reasonable.”
When I say "you," I'm actually referring to the person who has the authority to accept risk for a particular area of operations. This may include:
Topics: 1-Safety Policy
Quality management systems (QMS) are the big brother of safety management systems (SMS). They are often depicted as having conflicting interests.
Unfortunately, this is true in many organizations because the bottom line (money) is pushed more than safety.
QMS and SMS don’t have to be in conflict. In fact, if given the time and resources, they can integrate and significantly strengthen your organization’s:
Topics: Quality-Safety Management
The human spirit is a restless one, always seeking to push the boundaries of possibility.
Since the Wright brothers' first successful flight occurred only in 1903, aviation is relatively new to humankind. The nature of flight challenges people to come up with better ways to deal with risk.
The global standard, SMS, supports the aviation industry through
Topics: 3-Safety Assurance
The concept of risk changes depending on which context you use it. This is not comfortable for many safety managers who insist that risk is simply one thing.
It’s important that safety professionals keep an open mind to variations in how different safety terms are used.
Awareness of variation improves communication and understanding of the risk management process.
There are two main contexts in which the word risk is used:
Topics: 3-Safety Assurance
Safety manager performance is the ability of safety managers to drive performance in aviation SMS. “Drive performance” can mean either:
SMS charts are fantastic tools that you can use to monitor the safety performance of management.
Topics: 3-Safety Assurance
Traditionally, department heads are the individuals responsible for managing corrective and preventive actions associated with reported issues.
Managing an issue involves making sure that corrective-preventative actions (CPAs) are implemented appropriately. Now, let’s not get hung up on the word “department head” - it can act as a placeholder for the role in your organization that manages issues.
For example, some organizations will have a safety manager who manages issues.
Topics: Risk Management Software
Safety promotion plays a crucial role in your aviation safety culture. So when we talk about promoting your SMS, we are really talking about how to build a safety culture in your organization.
By far, safety promotion is often the most neglected portion of SMS. One, promoting the safety program is difficult, and two, it is vastly underrepresented in most aviation compliance authorities’ requirements.
Topics: 4-Safety Promotion
In aviation maintenance, as in all other aspects of the aviation sector, safety is paramount. Four safety management practices that can be applied to make any maintenance operation safer are:
Topics: 2-Safety Risk Management
The life cycle of hazard and risk occurrence (including other types of occurrences) encompasses the entirety of an adverse event to final consequences.
The process that follows the hazard/risk occurrence life cycle is the issue management life cycle.
The issue management life cycle includes all the steps management takes from identifying an issue to fixing the issue (and beyond this, monitoring the fix).
Topics: 3-Safety Assurance
Many often complain about how difficult it is to get full participation for their aviation safety management system. However, it doesn’t have to be difficult. Members of your organization will need much less coaxing to participate in your aviation safety program by making your program:
Topics: Safety Culture
These two on-demand videos offer:
