Responsibility of Aviation Safety Management Reports
When airline/airport employees report accidents, incidents and irregularities, these issues normally belong to a single division. Within this division, a single department head manages corrective preventive actions (CPAs) relating to this issue. This manager is responsible for this issue. Only one manager is responsible for this issue to ensure there are no ambiguities as which person is ultimately responsible.Occasionally, airline or airport incidents affect more than one division. For example, an intermittent hydraulic failure may affect both maintenance and flight ops divisions. In these cases, who is in charge of managing the issue? Flight ops or maintenance? In the past, SMS Pro managers simply created another issue and assigned the report to the other division. Each division then managed the reported issue within their own department. While this works, some detailed database artifacts may not be included in the duplicate report.
Branching Responsibility of Aviation Safety Management Reports
A new SMS Pro feature allows branching reported airline/airport incidents into two paths where each path maintains its own chain of authority. In the example above, flight ops would independently manage the issue according to their procedures. Likewise, maintenance would also manage the issue independently, including corrective preventive actions (CPAs), tracking, monitoring for safety assurance, etc.How to Branch Issues in Your Aviation SMS Software
After an airline/airport issue has been reported, safety managers review the reported issue. Next they begin performing the risk assessment. Safety managers at any time can determine whether the issue should also be managed in another division. A single click of the mouse will branch the issue to another division where it will be managed accordingly and a separate chain of authority established.
About NWDS - founded in 2003 by six software engineers, NorthWest Data Solutions (NWDS) provides custom computer programming and systems design services. NWDS creates many types of software, including e-commerce, financial, defense, engineering, logistics, aviation and more. In 2007, NWDS developed SMS Pro™ a web based SMS application that supports an organization's overall SMS through safety reporting, safety documentation, safety risk management and safety assurance. SMS Pro™ is currently used by aviation organizations in the U.S., Canada, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East to help manage their SMS programs. NWDS continues to support SMS Pro™ and add new functionality. NWDS offers custom contract programming services in the U.S. and Canada and is managed by Chris Howell, one of the founders. Their headquarters is in Anchorage, Alaska. For information on NWDS visit their website at www.nwds-ak.com and www.asms-pro.com to learn more about SMS Pro™.
