SMS Pro Aviation Safety Software Blog 4 Airlines & Airports

What Is Complacency in Human Factors?

What is complacency? - It’s the self-satisfaction accompanied by a loss of awareness of the dangers.

Two very experienced AMTs (one with 22 years and the other with 33 years of experience) missed 140 cracks during a 100-hourly inspection. This resulted in one fatality and 95 people experiencing a very close call when 18 ft of fuselage went missing during a flight.

The whole world screamed, how could this possibly happen? How could these 2 men miss that many cracks?

Decentralization of Information

Transparency boils down to a very simple issue: information.

Specifically, control over and access to information. As I have said before, it’s a hot topic these days.

WikiLeaks, Bradley Manning, Sony, the food industry – all are examples of major front-page scandals about access to information.

Aviation Safety Performance Begins at the Lowest Level

80% of aviation service providers have trouble getting employees to participate in aviation safety management systems (SMS).

Most safety managers accept this challenge and strive to implement consistent safety promotion activities, such as

• Safety newsletters;
• Safety surveys; and
• Safety meetings.

Safety Performance Monitoring in Aviation SMS

Most safety professionals have a common-sense perception about how to monitor the safety performance of their aviation safety management system (SMS). After all, isn't safety performance monitoring just a fancy phrase for setting goals and tracking them?

Aviation Safety Auditing for SMS Programs

Auditing is a management practice that is very common in most industrial domains and for a variety of different purposes.

Administrative personnel, for example, are very familiar with financial auditing.

Professionals working under a quality management system certification are familiar with quality auditing.

Purpose of Root Cause Analysis

Aviation safety managers usually have different opinions about exactly what root cause analysis is.

Root cause analysis activities for one safety manager may not align with the risk management processes practiced by another. This is because, in aviation safety management systems (SMS), there is no standard definition for what root cause analysis is.

Why Integrate Aviation SMS and QMS

Historically, quality management systems and traditional safety programs have been managed separately. With the advent of modern safety management systems (SMS), there is an opportunity to develop synergies between the two systems. However, the majority of safety professionals at smaller companies remain focused on simple SMS compliance and may miss out on this unexpected boon, which has been disguised as a regulatory mandate.

Indeed, many organizations still manage their organizations' safety and quality initiatives with separate systems for quality operations and safety operations.

Why Successful SMS Live by Aviation Leading Indicators

Aviation leading indicators are aviation safety data put to best use. They are designed to identify precursors to good/bad safety performance and uncover what goes into the program that dictates success or failure.

Aviation Safety Database Saves Considerable Resources

An aviation safety database is not simply an improvement over spreadsheets. The database completely overhauls the way you interact with safety information in an aviation safety management system (SMS). An SMS database is a proper technology to manage an aviation SMS for operators with:

What Is Advanced Aviation SMS Series?

Aviation SMS Must Be Business First—Safety Second

Does your aviation SMS make money? Probably not.

Why not? Most aviation SMS failures result from operators consistently neglecting to follow the prescribed aviation SMS recipe as originally designed.