Showing posts with label Safety Audit Checklist. Show all posts

Monday, October 28, 2013

Aviation Safety Management System (SMS) Audit - Achieving 4/4

Aviation Safety Management System (SMS) Audits - Getting Highest Marks

Aviation safety auditing software using checklists helps your airline or airport manage audits

Internal audit leaders and safety managers should place higher importance on effectively using technology to prepare their airline or airport for civil aviation authority SMS audits. Across the industry, there appears to be a significant gap between the importance that top airline and airport executives place on acquiring aviation SMS software tools and the perceived ability to use this aviation safety software to effectively prepare for audits and improve aviation safety.

Technology changes rapidly. If your internal auditors and safety managers are stuck using paper and MS Excel to prepare your airline or airport for an upcoming audit, they are way behind the times. New aviation SMS software exists to allow your safety and compliance teams to work together in managing pre-audit checklists.

Getting Top Aviation Safety Audit Marks from Civil Aviaiton Authorities

To help ensure your airline or airport consistently receives the highest auditing marks

Conduct a critical assessment of your airline/airport's current use of aviation safety software technology by the internal audit department.
Conduct an inventory of your technology tools and create a map relating tools to auditing efforts these tools support.
Develop plans for internal safety auditors to leverage the latest technologies to keep pace with technological advancements.
Establish close ties to other departments within your airline or airport to ensure you are pursuing complementary strategies and taking advantage of available technological resources.

It is important to determine whether the internal auditing department can use the same tools as other departments, such as the safety department. As an example, the Web based SMS Pro aviation SMS database software has auditing tools that can be used by both the safety and auditing departments. When your airline or airport has SMS Pro, audit checklists can be easily created or imported. Audits can be scheduled and managed within the user-friendly risk management framework.

Improving Your Aviation Safety Auditing Performance

To start the process to improve your aviation safety auditing performance, develop a long-term technology strategy addressing:

Core internal audit processes;
Real-time reports and analysis, continuous monitoring, and other technology-based activities;
Technology-related skill sets, reflecting the findings of a skills inventory for using these tools;
Budget requirements supporting technology-related goals;
Anticipated benefits of aviation safety auditing investments and activities; and
Measurements of the effectiveness of technology investments, processes, and activities.

More Information About Aviation Safety Audit Management Software

Failing Your Aviation Safety Audit - Next Steps?
Internal Auditors' Reporting Software
Audit Inspection Form Creator
Safety Audit Checklists
Audit Management Systems Integrated into Safety Management Systems
Policy & Audit Elements of Effective Risk Management Programs

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™.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Using Aviation Safety Audit Management Software

Safety Audit Management Software in SMS Pro

Aviation safety audits or investigations are typically stressful and time consuming. Preparing yourself and your airline or airport is the best way to make the process go smoothly. This saves time and money for all parties concerned. SMS Pro has several very inexpensive safety audit management software tools available for airlines, airports, flight schools, FBOs, AMOs (MROs) and our existing corporate charter operators. Many free aviation safety auditing downloads can be found on http://www.aviation-sms.com.

Aviation Safety Audit Software Tools

Using Aviation Safety Audit Management Software

Understanding the safety auditing tools is important for safety and quality managers to effectively prepare for safety audits, whether they are internal safety audits performed by your airline or airport, or external audits performed by aviation regulatory authorities or clients. Before we get too far into managing internal and external audits, let's review the available aviation safety auditing software modules available in SMS Pro.

1) Inspection Form Creator

Internal safety audits always begin with safety audit checklists. Checklists ensure that safety auditors review all the processes or procedures according to the standards of the specified audit. Aviation safety audits ensure airlines and airports are performing to prescribed standards. These standards are best laid out in checklists against which safety auditors answer with "yes/no," "true/false," etc.

Inspection Form Creator allows airlines and airports to very easily create aviation safety audit forms, whether they are airfield ground lighting, runway inspections, ground handling procedures, contractor/supplier evaluations, etc. As you can see, Inspection Form Creator is used for audits, inspections and evaluations.

In short, internal safety audits needs safety audit checklists and these checklists are created in the Inspection Form Creator.

2) Aviation Safety Audit Scheduler

Using Aviation Safety Audit Management Software at airlines and airports

Aviation Safety Audit Scheduler provides a calendar view of all aviation safety audits. SMS Pro can have more than one Safety Audit Scheduler per portal. For example, you may not want aviation maintenance departments to be overwhelmed with flight operations' safety audits. In this case, contact SMS Pro support and ask for another page to be created in your SMS Pro safety portal. If you have already taken the Advanced SMS Pro Administrator Training, you can do this yourself.

As you can easily imagine, the Aviation Safety Audit Scheduler allows managers to schedule internal and external safety audits. While scheduling the aviation safety audit, managers setup:

Audit Inspection Form(s) to be used;
Responsible Manager;
Audit Team;
Schedule Reminders to Auditing Team;
Recurring Audits.

To perform an aviation safety audit, members of the audit team can either start from the safety audit scheduling calendar or directly from the Safety Audit Manager.

3) Safety Audit Manager

aviation safety audit software for airlines and airiports

The third aviation safety auditing software module in SMS Pro is the Audit Manager. Audit Manager is where:

Audit Team answers selected safety audit checklists;
Audit Team adds attachments (photos, support documentation);
Responsible Manager accepts the completed aviation safety audit;
Final PDF reports are generated for printing or review.

When the auditing team discovers safety audit finding or concerns, reported issues are sent to SMS Pro's risk management software module, Issue Manager. Let's see how this works next.

4) Issue Manager - Aviation Safety Audit Managing Software

During the aviation safety audit, finding or concerns may be identified. Corrective actions must be managed to ensure identified shortcomings are addressed to ensure conformity to standards. Finally, a report must be made to audit stakeholders detailing the plan to correct the findings and concerns. SMS Pro's Issue Manager does this very nicely. Corrective Action Plans are generated automatically and you can send them to interested parties.

To learn more about SMS Pro's suite of aviation audit management software modules, visit here.

More Information About Aviation Safety Audit Management Software

How to best help your
Aviation Safety Management System

Become an SMS PRO

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Failing Your Aviation Safety Audit - Next Steps?

What Happens When Failing Aviation Safety Audits?

We've worked with literally hundreds of airlines and airports in the past six years as we've developed, implemented and supported the popular aviation safety management software, SMS Pro. SMS Pro does have safety audit management integrated into the Web based software; therefore, both safety and quality departments use the software to schedule and manage aviation safety-related audits.

airline airport safety audit management software helps manage safety and quality audits

Most airlines and airports look at SMS Pro because they are trying to comply with civil aviation regulatory requirements. They may have a safety audit coming due and the top management starts pressuring safety and quality managers with queries: "Are we going to pass the safety audit?," or "Are we ready for the SMS audit?"

Truth be told, we've had many worried safety manager contact us in the "eleventh hour," and they ask us the logical questions of one in such a predicament:
"How many airline or airports using SMS Pro passed the SMS audit?"
"All of them," we reply, eyebrows raised. "Civil aviation authorities love SMS Pro because it is a complete system and make the auditors jobs easier. We know there is another question about aviation safety audits they should be asking. And....

Only one airline asked me, "How many airlines using SMS Pro failed the safety audit?"

Safety Audit Management

That is the million dollar question! Let's look at passing/failing the safety audit from another perspective. After all the work of answering questions, catering to the team of safety auditors and sweating over poorly worded questions, the safety or quality auditor is repeatedly asked, "Hey, did we pass our safety (or quality) audit?"

Airline and airport workers who understand nothing about safety or quality audits don't realize there is no passing/failing the safety audit. There are simply findings, concerns, requests for more information, or compliance.

Findings and Concerns in Aviation Safety Audits

Findings are conclusions by safety auditors demonstrating noncompliance with specific standards.

Concerns are conclusions by safety auditors supported by objective evidence that is not a finding, but may become a finding.

Passing/Failing Internal Safety Audits

Internal audits are performed by airline or airport staff or by consultants. During the inspection process of an internal, the safety auditor uses a pre-defined checklist to serve as a guide in the auditing process. Results are compiled into an audit report containing audit findings, which are the nonconformities or noncompliance issues.

When your airline or airport gets one or two regulatory noncompliance hits, will it pass the internal audit? Remember, that audits aren't simple pass or fail exercises. In most cases, your airline or airport will be in great shape even with less than half a dozen audit findings, or perhaps even 10. You should always see safety audit results in a positive light, because you have identified shortcomings in your airline or airport's safety program. Armed with these data, you can create a list of corrective actions to manage these items. In SMS Pro, we use the Corrective Action Plan.

External Aviation Safety Audits

civil aviation aviation authority safety audit management for airlines and airports

If you read the section on passing/failing internal safety audits, then the same applies to external safety audits. There is no strict pass/fail. The difference lies with whether this was the airline or airport's initial safety audit, or the recurring safety audit. Furthermore, were the finding and concerns of minor importance or significant.

Civil aviation authorities do pull certificates. And clients, such as oil companies or governmental agencies do refuse business with airlines that do not comply with their standards.

When your airline or airport has the initial safety audit, you will have a set time period to address the noncompliance issues. Failure to comply can result in revoked certificates, denial for initial certification, or lost contracts.

Corrective Action Plan - After the Safety Audit

So your airline or airport received the list of finding and concerns. Don't take this personally. This is an opportunity to improve your safety program. Here is an outline of steps we use in SMS Pro to address safety audit findings and concerns:

All safety audit findings & concerns are pulled into SMS Pro's Issue Manager. They are grouped together under their respective audit.
Safety manager (or quality manager in some cases) then reviews the audit findings and concerns and assigns the item to a responsible manager.
Responsible manager identifies corrective actions and either 1) does the action; or 2) assigns the corrective action to another person in the division.
Once all audit findings and concerns have planned corrective actions, the safety manager generates the Corrective Action Plan. The Corrective Action Plan is simply a list of audit finding and concerns with the planned corrective actions, who they are assigned to, and the status of each corrective action.
Corrective Action Plans are mailed to stakeholders.

Corrective Action Plans are generated automatically by SMS Pro. They can be edited before sending them to stakeholders.

To learn more about SMS Pro's airline and airport safety audit processes built into the Web based software, follow this link.

More Information About Aviation Safety Audit Management Software

Internal Auditors' Reporting Software
Audit Inspection Form Creator
Safety Audit Checklists
Audit Management Systems Integrated into Safety Management Systems
Policy & Audit Elements of Effective Risk Management Programs

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Safety Audit Checklist

SAFETY AUDIT CHECKLIST

SMS Auditing Tools, Risk Management, Enterprise Grade

Serving Airlines & Airports Across the World.

Custom Safety Audit Checklist Software

Serving Airlines and Airports since 2008 with cutting edge SMS design, implementation, and maintenance.

Safety Audit Checklist Systems for all size airlines and airports (10 employees to ten thousand)
SQL Server Database Implementation
Custom Client and Server SMS Programming
Contract Design and Programming Services for Custom Safety Audit Checklist Solutions
Paper based and MS Excel systems are less effective than ever.
International airlines and airports must have Web presence.
We can provide safety audit checklist solutions for all aviation industry segments.

Web-based systems can make a difference in user acceptance. Engage employees with functional safety audit checklist tools that are user friendly...

Additional Information About Aviation Safety Management Software

Airline Safety Management Software
SMS for Aviation Purposes
Flight Safety Software
Online SMS Training by SMS Pro
Aviation Safety Reporting Software
Airline Safety Software
Safety Software
Aviation Safety Management System Software
Airport Safety Software
Safety Management System Software
Aviation SMS Software
Safety Audit Checklist
Four Pillars of Safety Management
Aviation Safety Solutions
Aviation SMS Safety Management Systems
Airport SMS Software
Airline SMS Software

How to best help your
Aviation Safety Management System

Become an SMS PRO

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Audit Management Systems Integrated into Safety Management Systems

Aviation safety audits are systematic examinations used to determine whether or not airline/airport business processes meet previously specified requirements, and are usually performed using question lists that are well-defined. Aviation safety audit results are valuated and documented in audit management databases. Audit management tools designed for the aviation industry help airlines and airports plan and process aviation safety audits, monitor corrective and preventive actions that were determined during aviation-related audits, and evaluate audit data according to different criteria.

Airline/Airport Auditing Software Must Be Flexible

Airline airport audit management systems for aviation safety

Airline/airport auditmanagement solutions should remain very flexible and allow airlines and airports to perform any type of audit that regulators or clients may require. For example, client-related quality audits (system audits, process audits, product audits, supplier audits), environmental audits, security audits (airport security, aircraft security, ramp security), or aviation safety audits.

Audit management solutions for airlines and airports can be applied to meet needs of all relevant norms like ISO 9001 or ISO 14001. Quality audit management solutions easily allow the integration of different audits, for example, the IOSA audits or Air Charter Safety Foundation audits for Flight Operations and Maintenance Operations. Since audits for aviation service providers are usually performed outside the office and in the field, mobile options are essential in supporting effective audit processing. Collaboration between the auditor and the audited party is typically required when corrective or preventive actions are agreed on, and have to effectively monitored, documented and managed to completion. For more sophisticated audit management systems, audited parties may use Internet applications to record actions, corrective actions and to report their completion.

Web Based Audit Management Solutions

Aviation safety management auditing software programs

Web-based audit management solutions often allow administrators to set up customized auditing questions, such as, "What flight operations standards are followed by your division?" Aviation related audits based on safety management regulations may be composed of multiple sections, with each section housing one or more questions. Questions may have different answer types, such as "True/False" or "Yes/No."

Administrators of these sophisticated auditing programs can customize auditing questions to suit corporate style and language; as well as adapting text for the sections and the questions.

Audit management solutions for aviation service providers must be suitable to process a wide variety of audit usages. Furthermore, audit management solutions must meet aviation service providers' requirements to unify different management systems into one integrated management system. This greatly reduces audit expenses. Web-based auditing solutions with a user-friendly interface ensures auditing functions of the audit management solution are accessible for authenticated users who have authorization, from any location, on the Web. Moreover, aviation service providers can have auditors directly attach documents and notes to auditing artifacts used in audit management.

With Web-based audit management solutions, information on audits is available for all users, thereby avoiding double work and leading to improvement of business processes. System integration of audit management solutions for aviation service providers with complex data environments provide access to a vast array of information from other areas in their aviation operations.

How to best help your
Aviation Safety Management System

Become an SMS PRO

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Policy & Audit Elements of Effective Risk Management Programs

Aviation SMS Safety Policy & Audits

Without a doubt, every aviation service provider is different. Airline and airport aviation safety management systems (SMS) should be designed to address the specific needs of individual airlines and airports. All formal SMS programs will have these two common elements:

SMS policy statement describing the goals and objectives of the aviation risk management program and the responsibilities for safety, security, quality and compliance
Regularly scheduled airline or airport audits and inspections of premises, equipment, and work practices

In this short article, we will discuss SMS Policy and Audits elements of an effective ICAO SMS Program.

Aviation Safety Policies Come from the Top

Airline & Airport Safety Policy

Every basic aviation risk management program, whether it is for an airport, airline, charter operator, aviation maintenance organization (AMO or MRO), requires a statement of the operator's objectives and the responsibilities of the company, top management, line staff managers, and workers. This statement, typically called an aviation safety policy, typically states:

The CEO, top management commitment to the SMS program
Airline/Airport commitment to protect the safety of workers and all stakeholders
The objectives and priorities of the operator's SMS program
The safety duties and responsibilities of the top management, line supervisors, and workers

Effective aviation safety policies should be simply written and easy to understand. They do not need to be long, drawn out novels. After all, the aviation safety policy is not designed for "show," but to be actually read and understood by all employees. Therefore, keep it simple, clear and concise.

The written aviation SMS policy should be signed by the CEO or the most senior manager, whatever his title may be. It should be dated and reviewed annually. All workers should be made aware of the policy and its importance. For example, it could be given to all new workers and posted in the workplace, or on the aviation service provider's Web site. Some modern Web based aviation safety management systems have polices and procedures integrated into the aviation risk management software.

Regular Safety Audits and Inspections

Regular audits and inspections of the workplace are intended to:

Identify conditions and unsafe acts with the potential to cause injury or damage to equipment
Determine necessary corrective measures
Prevent unsafe operating conditions from developing
Ensure industry standards and best practices are being followed

Three different kinds of audits and inspections are described below:

Regular, planned workplace audits and inspections: Inspect buildings, structures, grounds, aircraft, tools, equipment, machinery, and work methods and practices for hazards that might cause injury or damage to aircraft or the environment. Schedule these audits and inspections at appropriate intervals to prevent unsafe conditions developing. Depending on the aviation service provider and the type of hazards that might develop, audits and inspections may be scheduled daily, weekly, or monthly.
Equipment audits and inspections: Workers should be trained to inspect their machinery, tools, and equipment regularly, following the manufacturer’s minimum recommendations. National regulatory agencies may also have specific requirements.
Special audits and inspections: National civil aviation regulatory agencies typically require special inspections or audits after certain types of events to ensure that operations do not resume until it is safe to do so.

Airline & Airport Audits and Inspections

SMS inspection teams typically include both worker and management representatives. Very often, a third-party auditor regularly conducts these audits and inspections. SMS auditing teams should be familiar with the work flow process and, whenever possible, include members of the joint safety committee or the company's safety representative.

Aviation Safety Audit Checklists

aviation SMS safety audits and inspections

Safety Audits Serve Serveral Purposes

Inspection checklists can help ensure that audits and inspections are thorough, results are recorded, and the inspection process is standardized. A checklist is particularly useful in guiding those unfamiliar with the

inspection process. Checklists should be adapted to suit the needs of each aviation service provider's unique operations.

Safety audit checklists can also be used as a guide for the airline and airport to prepare for the audit or inspection. The audit and inspection should never be a "surprise," and advance warning of audits are almost always provided in advance. Therefore, using auditors' checklists as "pre-audit checklists" offers several benefits to the airline or airport, including training, convenience and time and cost savings.

Managing Safety Audit Findings and Concerns

Any unsafe or harmful conditions found during a regular inspection or audit should be reported immediately to the supervisor or employer and remedied without delay. This is commonly done through the airline or airport's hazard reporting system. When auditing processes are well-integrated into an operator's risk management processes, the work flow is seamless and saves considerable time and money in labor savings to manage these findings and concerns.

Document and communicate all significant findings and concerns for future reference. Each hazard or inconsistency identified should be recorded and the corrective actions taken to eliminate or control each item. Ensure to communicate this information to the joint safety committee for their review and approval.

Auditing is an iterative process when you consider the work flow over the course of several years. Audits and inspections offer airlines and airports an opportunity to improve operations and serve as an effective tool to educate managers and employees alike on the safe business practices. With this in mind, one should not always view safety audits as a waste of time, but as an opportunity.

How to best help your
Aviation Safety Management System

Become an SMS PRO