Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), also called SPIs (Safety Performance Indicators), are data metrics that indicate the baseline performance of your SMS for managing safety. The term Key Performance Indicators is indicative of the scope of KPIs:
Topics: Key Performance Indicators
If you’re reading this, it means you are considering or curious about what it takes to switch your safety management system. But, what are we talking about when we say “switch” your SMS program. There are a couple of possible scenarios that you should consider:
Topics: Aviation SMS Implementation
Under the umbrella of many SMS compliance agencies, an operational risk profile (ORP) is a requirement that is the core of your hazard, risk, and control measure accountability. That’s another way of saying that all risk mitigation “resources” are identified in your ORP.
But what are risk mitigation “resources?” These are any elements that are relevant to risk exposure and risk reduction. Resources can be:
Topics: 2-Safety Risk Management
Continuous improvement in aviation SMS programs in the formal process by which safety programs correct substandard safety performances that have been identified. Correcting substandard performance has several basic elements:
Topics: 3-Safety Assurance
Ultimately, choosing between custom-built, in-house aviation safety management system (SMS) software and commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions comes down to three key considerations:
The first question you need to ask yourself is: What problem are you trying to solve?
Topics: Aviation SMS Database
Safety reports in SMS programs are your primary weapon for communicating safety information to stakeholders. Safety information will be catered to stakeholders.
Stakeholders are simply anyone who you need to communicate safety information to, such as:
Topics: 2-Safety Risk Management
In aviation safety management systems (SMS), reported safety issues and audit findings are run through an operator's documented risk management process. During this process, additional mitigation measures must be applied to safety concerns whenever the risk is either:
Topics: 3-Safety Assurance
Different organizations will have different requirements when they review safety issues. Whether or not you are reviewing low-risk issues is up to you. While we recommend reviewing all issues, the reality is that due to time and resource constraints, this is not always feasible. The important point here is that you will decide which issues to review based on their risk assessment.
At the least, you should review:
Topics: 3-Safety Assurance
A new SMS program means adopting a new safety program in your organization. This new safety program can be an entirely new risk management program where one did not exist before. This new safety program can replace an old SMS, such as in the case of switching SMS programs.
Both scenarios involve significant (if not total) overhaul to the existing way of doing things in an organization. The basic evolution of adopting a new aviation SMS program, whether it’s replacing an existing program or is entirely new, is:
Topics: Risk Management Training
In layman's terms, Just Culture in aviation SMS programs is an organization’s commitment to focusing on learning and improving in the light of unsafe acts, as opposed to blaming and punishing.
In many ways, just culture is a commitment that is as much documentation and policy as it is actions on the part of management. In many ways, it means taking a scientific approach to understanding the mechanisms of safety incidents.
Topics: 4-Safety Promotion
These two on-demand videos offer:
