Aviation safety managers, especially at larger airlines and airports have considerable work to perform, including:
Safety managers often become so engrossed in SMS activities that they overlook vendors, subcontractors, and business partners. These associated organizations also fall under scrutiny when the SMS auditors come to assess regulatory and/or contractual compliance with SMS requirements.
This article discusses how to involve your vendors in your aviation SMS implementation and why you should be performing safety assessments on your vendors.
Many aviation service providers already have quality management systems in place, and if you are lucky, your SMS is integrated with your quality management system. This will save considerable work and allow the safety department to utilize existing processes.
If your company does not have a QMS (quality management system), don't be overly disappointed. There will still be opportunities.
Many use cases actively involve your vendors in your SMS implementation. These activities may include:
In most cases, your SMS implementation already has internal safety tools that can be extended to include other stakeholders. For example, you can include vendors in your web-based aviation safety solution or give them limited access to SMS management tools.
Vendors, contractors, suppliers, and tenants should actively participate in your SMS initiative. At the bare minimum, they should be alert (and alerted) to potential hazards under your responsibility to:
Aviation service providers rarely operate in a closed system, without dependencies. In fact, I am unable to think of an operator who is not dependent on suppliers to provide goods or services in order for this operator to perform their mission.
Since each operator is dependent on "external forces" to report hazards to assure operations remain safe, it only makes sense that your company has a "publicly accessible safety reporting system" to allow your vendors and external stakeholders an easy way to participate in your SMS.
If we take this one step further, you should encourage your external stakeholders to report more than real or potential safety hazards. Maximize the utility of your safety program and turn it into an integrated safety and quality management system. Each of these systems shares many common components. Workflows are very similar to improving quality as it is for safety.
Since vendors and external stakeholders share a common interest with you, they should be committed to ensuring your successful operations. When accidents occur, it is not only your company that is affected. Open systems, like the aviation industry, affect everyone, either directly or indirectly.
Doesn't it make sense to allow your vendors to easily participate in your SMS program?
Allowing vendors to participate in your SMS program is not expensive. A simple step (and the least expensive option) is opening up your safety reporting system to allow non-employees to submit safety issues. Of course, it does little good to provide access unless the vendors understand:
SMS Pro has several tools that allow vendors to securely interact and participate in your aviation SMS. Since 2007, SMS Pro has worked with hundreds of operators around the globe. To learn how you can benefit from SMS Pro, watch these short demo videos.
Last updated April 2024.