SMS Pro Aviation Safety Software Blog 4 Airlines & Airports

What Is the Fuss about Management of Change?

Management of change in aviation safety management systems (SMS) is essential for managing operational or organizational change. Safety teams are typically involved in the management of change (MOC) exercises.

There is often confusion among new aviation safety managers when they are confronted with answering auditors' questions regarding MOC in their SMS. Best practices should always be reviewed when implementing your MOC workflow.

This article will briefly describe MOC and some preferred best practices.

Reactive and Proactive Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment

Aviation safety managers are tasked to ensure that the safety risks encountered at their operations are controlled to as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP).

Modern aviation safety risk management includes:

• Hazard identification;
• Hazard reporting;
• Safety risk assessment; and
• Implementing appropriate control and recovery measures.

Understanding Proactive Hazard Analysis Process

The best way to recognize and mitigate immediate risks associated with aviation hazards is by using the PAVE checklist to analyze your current safety environment. PAVE is an excellent and expedient flight risk assessment tool (FRAT).

Each risk scenario can be grouped under a part of the PAVE checklist and can help with recognizing both the hazard and the need to react for a particular mission. The need to react may be one of your control measures identified during the proactive hazard analysis process.

Definition of Hazard Identification

Hazard identification in aviation SMS is the baseline performance needed for a successful safety program. It is the first element of the Safety Risk Management component of the 4 Pillars of aviation safety.

At face value, hazard identification is fairly simple: awareness and recognition of potential danger in the operational environment. In aviation safety management systems (SMS), hazard identification is complicated by the fact that:

Questions Come First in Safety Management

The unfortunate fact is that many managers in aviation safety management systems (SMS) don’t start asking serious questions until their SMS is either “stuck” or in trouble.

Questions and answers need to come at the beginning of SMS implementation. Your answers to fundamental questions about safety management will be a guideline through the entire process of your SMS' implementation.

I can’t help but observe that aviation oversight agencies are constantly reinforcing the idea that there is one right answer to every situation.

What Is Risk Assessment in Aviation SMS

Operators implementing formal aviation safety management systems (SMS) need to develop, practice and maintain a documented process of risk analysis, risk assessment, and risk control to an acceptable level of safety (ALoS). We say that the process needs to be formal in the sense that risk assessments/analysis needs to be documented and communicated to employees based on their participatory role in the aviation SMS.

The risk assessment process in aviation SMS starts with hazard identification and hazard reporting.

Elements of Safety Risk Management (SRM)

Safety Risk Management receives by far the most attention of any aspect of aviation safety management systems (SMS). It is, as you might say, “where the action is,” in terms of managing risk and the most focused-upon element in an aviation SMS.

Despite the fact that other aspects of aviation risk management processes provide equally valuable assistance in developing an aviation SMS, SRM deals most directly with risk exposure.

What Is a Risk Matrix

Risk matrices are probably the inter-industry safety standard as the primary tool used in risk evaluation. In aviation safety management systems (SMS) they are ubiquitous.

Risk matrices are simplistic charts (though not necessarily “simple”) that use “probability” and “severity” to quantify the risk priority of a real or hypothetical safety scenario. The quantification is generally broken into 3 categories:

• Acceptable risk (green);

What Is a Risk Mitigation Strategy in Aviation SMS Programs

The primary objective of risk mitigation strategies in aviation SMS programs is usually detailed as being a plan to implement risk controls that reduce the likelihood/severity of each identified specific risk. However, this risk mitigation plan is limited in that it does not address the mitigation of hazard occurrence.

Despite the fact that oversight agencies generally stress risk mitigation as being accident centric, aviation SMS programs should include hazard-mitigation and risk-mitigation strategies.

Aviation Risk Management Is a Cyclical Process

The phrase “aviation risk management” gives the impression of being a single, solid idea – something to attain for – but in actual practice, it is a cyclical process.

Simply put, risk management is about identifying and placing controls (i.e., strengthening) weak points in an aviation safety management system (SMS).

The understanding that risk management is cyclical is an important fact because, while the phrase "risk management" has a strong flavor of top-down management styles,