Have You Outgrown Your Current Aviation Safety Management System?
Many airlines and airports are in the same boat. Due to internal or external mandate, they assign safety managers the responsibility of aviation safety management — the process used to manage all aspects of your company's aviation safety program.Basic Approach to Aviation Safety Management
- An Excel spreadsheet listing basic hazard & event information;
- A shared network drive that houses all electronic files relevant to safety events and hazards;
- Safety managers manually check when corrective actions are due and determines next steps;
- Excel and Word files managing audit schedules and checklists.
Can the Above Safety Management Solution Work?
Sure, on a small scale. But eventually your airline or airport will encounter one or more of the following problems...
- Too much safety information to reliably track in an Excel spreadsheet;
- Lack of searching and reporting makes it difficult to get the right information when you need it;
- Shared drive becomes completely unwieldy with too many documents with little structure;
- Over-reliance on manual oversight leads to human error impacting important business decisions;
- You spend more time fixing the system and creating workarounds than on managing your safety program.
How SMS Pro Works
SMS Pro is a secure, web-based product that NWDS hosts & maintains. NWDS manages all aspects of running the safety management application (hosting, security, backups, software upgrades, etc.) thereby allowing you to focus on your actual aviation safety management program.
SMS Pro's approach to aviation safety management is based on these assumptions:
- Your airline or airport is required to have a formal aviation safety management program (SMS);
- Your airline or airport has many events and hazards to manage in an ever changing environment;
- You need a hazard reporting system that is easy to manage and accessible to all stakeholders;
- Each event can have one or many corrective actions that may be managed by different employees;
- Each event and hazard must be reviewed on a regular basis;
- You perform risk assessments to determine safety events and hazards' criticality
- You track safety issues & incidents from the time they are reported until closure and review;
- You conduct periodic safety reviews to ensure the safety program is meeting expectations;
- You perform periodic safety surveys and publish safety newletters to promote safety; and
- You need to demonstrate to auditors the effectiveness of your SMS program.
Available Aviation Safety Management Modules
Depending on the resources your airline or airport allocates to safety management, you may be doing all of the above or a fraction of it. SMS Pro is modular & a la carte so that you only need to pay for the features you need.
How to best help your
Aviation Safety Management System
Become an SMS PRO
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™.
