SMS Pro Aviation Safety Software Blog 4 Airlines & Airports

When Should I Review Our SMS Manual?

It's very important to review SMS Manuals.

The most common audit finding is that the operator is not conducting operations as stated in their SMS manual.

Furthermore, your manual is only as useful as the information it contains. If the information is out of date, employees will lose trust in it. This undermines the safety culture you've worked to build.

4 Tips to Sell SMS to Top Management

ICAO and civil aviation authorities require SMS for many organizations. Even so, it's important to have buy-in from top management to make your SMS effective.

Lack of top management support remains among the top reasons an aviation SMS may fail.

Here are four, common-sense tips to help you earn top management support.

Why Create an Aviation SMS Manual?

ICAO 9859 calls for aviation organizations to document their SMS. This can be a simple document referencing the policies and procedures or a detailed manual.

If you run a small operation, or many processes are already in place, a simple document might be all you need.

Most organizations will need a detailed manual. An SMS manual shares much in common with your quality manual if you conveniently have one.

Safety Managers Can Only Manage Hazards That Are Reported

Healthy aviation safety management systems (SMS) rely upon hazard reporting to reduce operational risk. High-performing safety reporting cultures receive approximately one report for every ten employees each month.

When safety managers have poor hazard reporting cultures, they have a more difficult time justifying aviation safety budgets. Furthermore, their collected data is skewed and inaccurate and basically useless for responsible decision-making.

Why Review Safety Policy & Objectives in Aviation SMS Programs?

Aviation safety managers share many common traits, including:

• detail oriented;
• hard driven;
• professional;
• self-starters (high initiative); and
• good communicators.

Why Safety Management Gets Safety Objectives Wrong

Somewhat surprisingly, in aviation safety management systems (SMS), safety objectives are often quite misunderstood. Experienced safety management may have a slightly misguided understanding of safety objectives.

New safety management will simply ask, what are safety objectives?

What Is Aviation Safety Policy

An Aviation Safety Policy is a document in aviation safety management systems (SMS) that outlines:

• What your organization’s safety value are;
• Expectations from employees and stakeholders;
• What safety commitments your organization is willing to make, as directed by the accountable executive; and
• Which resources employees can use to fulfill their SMS duties and responsibilities (policies, procedures, accountabilities, tools)?

What Are Safety Objectives in Aviation SMS

Safety objectives in aviation SMS are the markers your safety program uses to assess whether or not your safety goals are being achieved. Your safety objectives will be the basis for how you measure safety performance.

Creating safety objectives is one of the most important tasks for setting yourself up to make good safety decisions and to monitor the performance of the SMS.

What Is Safety Policy in Aviation SMS

Your Safety Policy is the canon of your aviation safety program. It outlines all of the essential information anyone in your company would want to know regarding safety. It is one of the first components of your SMS that you will develop. It will be the document that you:

• Reference in response to employee questions;
• Demonstrate to auditors; and
• Use to outline essential facets of your SMS.

The Importance of an Aviation SMS Manual

ICAO requires an SMS manual for many aviation organizations required to abide by their SMS mandate. It is very tempting to gloss over your manual... to get it out of the way and never look at it again.

Manuals aren't sexy, and most of the time, they're boring at best. I've read a lot of manuals that were downright painful.