Safety Management Systems (SMS) for Airports
Airport safety management systems can be defined as a synchronized, wide range of practices developed to lead and regulate airport resources to optimally manage safety, security, quality, environmental and compliance problems affecting daily airport activities. Effective airport safety management systems take unrelated processes and builds them into one coherent system to take the airport the next level of safety implementation, making safety management a basic component of general risk management, customer service and safety and customer satisfaction.Changes in Safety Management Systems for Airports
These days, safety management systems for airports are based mostly on management and liability and demonstrate a higher level of transparency than seen in previous airport safety management models that were standardized in the previous decades. Airport managers see that constant improvement requires the acceptance and contribution of all stakeholders affected by airport operations. These aviation service operations require:- Proactive hazard identification;
- Risk management processes;
- Information management;
- Safety auditing;
- Initial and recurrent safety training; and
- Regular feedback to participating stakeholders to keep them engaged in the process.
Airport Safety Management Systems Build on Other Systems
Airport safety management systems nowadays develop on what other safety and quality professionals have previously delivered to many industry segments. These safety management systems (SMS) continue to accept incident reporting and investigation as a core feature to the risk management process. Some principles cross industry lines, such as in fleet inspection management systems, quality management systems and environmental management systems.Developing a modern safety management system for airports requires airport managers to study many current designs, laws and guidance material from around the world. Adopting these aviation SMS best practices ensures that airport safety managers can have more success customizing and developing quality standards explicitly planned for their specific airport operations. Many safety management systems SMS mentors, consultants and software development companies offer tool kits that are compilations of the best, or time-tested, methods and solutions. Often these SMS programs are integrated into their existing Website programs by professional web design companies.
Airport Safety Management Systems Implemented by SMS Consultants
Developments in the area of safety management systems arrived from a wide, heterogeneous array of small, medium and large operations, such as construction companies, shipping companies, and electronics manufacturers from around the world. Many SMS consulting firms help airports to accomplish their safety performance objectives while allowing them to choose the simplest way to succeed in satisfying regulatory requirements. This is normally referred to as a accomplishment based methodology, and encourages airports to settle on solutions and resources that most closely fits their needs and ensures that they meet their safety performance targets. Safety management consultants help airports to ensure their degree of regulatory compliance and work out tactics to incorporate the necessary methodologies.Safety management systems are needed at airports to help facilitate the proactive and reactive identification of safety concerns and hazards to take full advantage of the improvement of a superior safety philosophy. Moreover, effective safety management systems facilitate the changing of attitudes and procedures of personnel so as to make a safer work place, enhance asset protection, improve customer safety and achieve higher levels of customer satisfaction. Current safety management systems help airports to prevent wasting time, money and management’s time from being focused on trivial or irrelevant problems. The more sophisticated safety management systems permit safety managers to identify hazards, assess threats, identify safety shortcomings and put up a business case to justify controls and recovery measures that can reduce risk to satisfactory levels and improve product or service conditions.
For many airports all over the world, current safety management systems provide a demonstrated process for managing risk and enhancing safety that ties all elements of the airport's organization.
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Aviation Safety Management System
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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™.
