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
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
Underlying causes in aviation safety management systems (SMS) are the bridge between reactive and proactive risk management.
Underlying causes are the “input” for safety issues because they reinforce the actions and behaviors that cause incidents to happen.
Topics: 3-Safety Assurance
Aviation service providers around the world have been devoting considerable resources to implement formal aviation safety management systems (SMS). Each of these SMS implementations requires safety performance monitoring and measurement of critical data elements.
Clearly, many elements and risk management activities that makeup SMS' performance. Where does a safety manager start?
In most aviation safety management systems (SMS), the single most important factor for superior risk management capabilities often, unfortunately, receives the least attention: a mature safety risk culture – which we can confidently say is the collective risk management attitude of an organization.
Experience and research tell us that the risk attitude of employees significantly influences whether an aviation SMS delivers the level of safety that it promises.
Topics: 3-Safety Assurance
I’ve never much cared for the phrase “Human Factors.”
It has a negative edge to it that unfortunately has tended to bleed into the mindset of many aviation SMS implementations as the “Human Problem” - the thing that needs to be fixed. Just look at the fact that the 12 Human Factors are called "The Dirty Dozen.”
When Human Factors in aviation SMS are viewed as a problem to be controlled, the natural result is to focus on rule-based, prescriptive methods of containing the risk that humans pose.
Topics: 3-Safety Assurance
As you may already know from our previous post, our FAA SAS Profile provides the collection of tools that aviation safety professionals need for assessing their certificates' safety assurance requirements.
Our SAS Profile tool can help:
Topics: 3-Safety Assurance
When was the last time you took a good look at your Human Factors (HF) course?
Does it strategically focus on the current aviation maintenance problem areas?
Or are you literally trying to cover dozens of topics in just two days? If you don't know these major topics, check the EASA human factors recommended training syllabus.
There is good news...
Topics: 3-Safety Assurance
The basic fact is that truly judging the effectiveness of aviation safety management systems (SMS) is tough.
To merely judge the effectiveness of a program based on how well it meets compliance sounds prescriptive at best.
Judging a program based on a number of incidents and other such numeric data is terribly inadequate. It doesn’t take into account so many other factors that can reveal an SMS' health, such as:
Topics: 3-Safety Assurance
These two on-demand videos offer:
