SMS Pro Aviation Safety Software Blog 4 Airlines & Airports

Safety Professionals Need to Understand Risk Control Strategies

Aviation safety managers must monitor risk controls for effectiveness as they are associated with many hazards encountered in daily operations. There is an expectation of regulatory agencies that aviation service providers' implemented safety management systems (SMS) will:

• proactively manage safety;
• identify potential hazards,
• determine the risk associated with those identified hazards; and
• implement and monitor control measures that mitigate the risk.

What Is Improvement for Your Aviation SMS Implementation?

Improving your aviation safety management system's (SMS) effectiveness doesn’t always have to be a long-term effort. Just as with any complex initiative, there will always be low-hanging fruit in your SMS implementation that can add considerable value without requiring extravagant expenses or investments in time.

SMS implementation and continuous improvement activities require long-term strategies. Nonetheless, there are simple ways you can quickly and easily improve the core aspects of your aviation SMS implementation in a very short amount of time.

Aviation SMS Are Not Required by All Operators

In November 2006, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICA0) mandated the implementation of formal aviation safety management systems (SMS) for most commercial aviation service providers. Besides the usual suspects of large airlines and airports, the list of required operators includes

• flight schools,
• aircraft designers,
• aircraft parts manufacturers, and

How to Understand Fatigue in Aviation SMS

Fatigue is a top safety priority. Even moderate levels of fatigue can cause employees to demonstrate the same mental and physical capabilities as an intoxicated person.

Discussing fatigue in aviation safety management systems (SMS) becomes interesting when one considers the onus for managing fatigue is on multiple parties, namely:

• Civil aviation authority for providing regulatory framework and oversight activities to ensure operators manage fatigue based on scientific principles, knowledge, and operational experience;

What Is Trend Analysis in Aviation Safety Management?

It is a common misnomer that trend analysis in risk management is used to forecast future performance. This understanding of trend analysis is both reductive and distorts the purpose of trend analysis in aviation safety management systems (SMS).

According to the FAA, the objective of aviation SMS implementations is to:

• proactively manage safety,
• identify potential hazards;
• determine risk, and

All Four Pillars Are Not Created Equal

Aviation safety professionals know that the four pillars of safety management systems are the foundational idea upon which aviation safety management systems (SMS) are based.

1. Safety Policy – Defines methods, procedures, and organizational structure
2. Safety Risk Management – Looks at the adequacy of, and determines the need for, risk controls, and identifies new hazards

FAA’s Safety Risk Management (SRM) Process and Hazard Identification Element

The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) SRM compliance requirement for hazard identification controls every U.S. aviation service provider required to implement formal aviation safety management systems (SMS). These SRM requirements indirectly affect these operators' safety culture and risk management processes whether they like it or not.

Unlike traditional safety programs, formal aviation SMS implementations have requirements for management to participate and provide oversight to ensure the SMS remains operational across the entire organization.

A Hot Word in Aviation SMS?

As airlines and the aviation industry, in general, continue to eclipse safety records year by year, a nagging question begins to crop up with increasing vigor:

To what end?

The thought of endless safety improvement is daunting for any aviation safety manager. Endless improvement is totally unrealistic, though it often feels like the pressure from up top is to strive for just that – an impossible goal.

What Is SMS Shortfall Analysis?

In every aviation safety management system (SMS), the accountable executive is responsible for ensuring the SMS is properly implemented and working across the entire organization. In order to fulfill this responsibility, accountable executives and their safety teams need tools to identify and address substandard safety performance.

What Is Change Management in Aviation SMS

Since November 2006, most commercial aviation service providers have been required to implement formal aviation safety management systems (SMS) to comply with the International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO) mandate.

These operators must develop and maintain a formal risk management process for identifying hazards and implementing needed changes in their operational environments to help reduce risk to acceptable levels.