1. ICAO SMS - Make Sure You Are Safe With These Tools
By Brian Bowie
Manual Masters LLC
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2. One aspect of a well designed SMS program is safety assurance.
Safety risk management is only half of the battle when it comes
to a well run safety management system. The reason is because
once you have identified your hazards, analyzed the risk and
controlled them to an acceptable level, you will need to ensure
they are working properly. If you do not monitor your system’s
operations and processes, your system will likely drift back to
an area of unacceptable risk. Over time you will likely have an
accident or incident. This is where safety assurance comes in.
Safety assurance will identify processes and procedures that
are not working as planned leading to an unacceptable level of
risk. Safety assurance will also identify non-compliance with
processes and procedures. This non-compliance will increase
your risk factor as well. There are many tools the safety
manager can use to identify both of these issues with your SMS
program. Let’s briefly discuss a few of the SMS tools available.
The first tool is continuous monitoring of the system. The safety
manager will ensure that the system is being continuously
monitored for potential safety issues and hazards. The main
way to do this is to monitor and analyze operational data. Some
of the items that can be monitored are things like flight logs,
maintenance logs, crew duty reports, unusual occurrence
reports, time cards, process sheets and reports from the
employee feedback system.
3. The next tool is internal audits by operational departments. The
safety manager should develop an audit procedure that will be
carried out by line managers from time to time. The reason for
line managers to complete this audit is that they have firsthand
knowledge of the specific processes and procedures involved.
This firsthand knowledge will make it easier for them to spot a
safety issue. An outsider without any specific knowledge of the
system will not be as likely to notice some safety issues.
The third tool is and internal evaluation. The safety manager
should design an internal evaluation to evaluate the operations
to ensure that it conforms to SMS objectives and expectations.
These evaluations should be completed at specific intervals and
completed by specific individuals that are trained to complete
these evaluations. Unlike the internal evaluations by
operational departments, these evaluations need be conducted
by someone that is independent of the process being
evaluated. This provides a double check of the system. You
have an insider with specific knowledge checking the system
and then you also have an outsider checking the system as well
to ensure that every possible safety issue is found and
addressed.
4. The fourth tool is external audits of the safety management
system. This could be a formal external audit by an audit
company or just the FAA when they come into evaluate the
operation.
The fifth tool is investigation. All incidents and accidents should
be investigate not only as to the root cause but also as to how
the system can be enhanced to prevent similar issues in the
future. Also any reports of non-compliance with processes and
procedures (including regulatory non-compliance should also
be investigated) and analyzed as well.
The sixth tool is one of the most important tools. This tool is the
employee reporting and feedback system. The safety manager
needs to design an system to allow employees to report any
safety issues or hazards that they notice. The safety manager
then needs to promote this system so that the employees feel
comfortable making reports and that they will not be punished
in any way for making these hazard reports.
Safety assurance is a very important process in the SMS loop.
Without it, the loop will be broken and the operation will drift
off into an area of unacceptable risk. The good news is that
there are many simple tools to help ensure your SMS program
is meeting its objectives and expectations.
