Showing posts with label four sms pillars. Show all posts

Friday, February 14, 2014

The SMS Four Pillars of Safety

Understanding Four Pillars of Safety Management

Every aviation safety professional must become intimately familiar with the four pillars of aviation safety management.

Feel free to use this content as desired in your safety newsletters. TACG provides this aviation safety newsletter template as a service to the aviation safety community.

Safety Policy - First SMS Pillar

aviation SMS four safety pillars for airlines airports

Safety policy is concerned with the structure and outline of how safe operations will be conducted. Among other things, it involves planning, organizing, compliance with regulations and law, documentation, and emergency preparedness and response. It is at this level that upper-level management must buy-in and continuously support the SMS. Without management buy-in and support, the SMS is bound to fail. Employees are highly influenced by management behavior examples and therefore if employees see management intentionally breaking rules or ignoring policy it is likely the employees will emulate this behavior.

Safety Risk Management - Second SMS Pillar

Possibly the most important component of the SMS, safety risk management is the process by which risks are identified, mitigated, or eliminated before they become a visible (surfaced) accident or incident. This is a proactive (as well as predictive) approach to error prevention and mitigation, which is a paradigm shift from the strictly reactive approach that has been used in the past.

Risk Management SMS Pillar for ICAO compliant safety programs

Risk can be thought of as the consequence of a hazard and is measured in terms of severity and probability. You will develop a Preliminary Hazard Analysis (PHA) that will be used to identify the hazards that exist in your operation. Hazard identification can be accomplished by a variety of methods that include observations, audits, safety surveys, investigations, and research. Other sources can include factual briefings from frontline personnel, subject matter experts, brainstorming, and analysis tools such as event trees, fault trees, FMECA’s, and so on. Once the hazards are identified you will then need to analyze the data to determine what type of controls may need to be put in place. Risks that have a high severity and high likelihood rating would be the ones you want to address as a priority. On the other hand, risks that have a low severity rating and a low likelihood of occurrence may be classified as acceptable risks that you can just live with.

Safety Assurance and Internal Evaluation - Third SMS Pillar

The well-known Heinrich Ratio states that, for every fatal accident, there will be three to five nonfatal accidents and 10 to15 incidents; but there will also be hundreds of unreported occurrences. Unreported occurrences are extremely problematic since no defenses can be employed if nobody knows they these occurrences exist.

Safety Assurance SMS Pillar for ICAO compliant safety programs

There are quite a few subcomponents in this category, one of the most important being error reporting; however, an error reporting system may be one of the most challenging SMS components to implement. Employees may feel that while there are clear advantages to error reporting, at the same time they may also feel that embarrassment and potential personal punitive implications far outweigh the organizational advantages. Yet, a good and effective safety culture must include an error reporting system. In order to attain this goal you will need to ensure that your organization has a Just Culture. A Just Culture is a culture that acknowledges that well-intentioned people still make mistakes and they should not be punished for slips, lapses, mistakes, and other unintentional errors. However, a line is still drawn where willful violations and purposeful unsafe acts will still be dealt with in some sort of punitive fashion. The bottom line of a Just Culture is trust. Employees must know that they can report errors without sanction.

Safety Promotion - Fourth SMS Pillar

Subcomponents of this category include the development and continuous nurturing of a healthy safety culture, communication, training, and feedback of lessons learned. The most important point about safety promotion is that there needs to be an ongoing, palpable presence to the SMS. This requires, among other things, open communication between management and employees, feedback offered on a regular basis, and appropriate employee training on the SMS.

Dr. Bob Baron is the President and Chief Consultant of The Aviation Consulting Group (TACG). His specializations include Human Factors (HF), Safety Management Systems (SMS), Crew Resource Management (CRM), Line Operations Safety Audit (LOSA), and Fatigue Risk Management (FRM). He consults with, and provides training to, hundreds of aviation organizations on a worldwide basis. Projects range from short workshops all the way up to, and including, full safety program implementation at some of the largest airlines and aircraft manufacturers in the world. He also works with various civil aviation authorities and accident investigation bureaus to improve safety at the very highest levels of the aviation system. Please visit the TACG website for more information. www.tacgworldwide.com

Dr. Bob Baron can also travel to your location to provide quality aviation safety management systems software training to best suit your airline or airport's need.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

ICAO's Four Pillars or Components of Aviation Safety Management Systems (SMS)

Most civil aviation authorities base their safety management regulations on ICAO's four pillars. Below is a list of ICAO's four pillars (or components) and their associated ICAO reference.

ICAO's Four Pillars (or Components) of Aviation Safety Management Systems

ICAO four pillars for aviation safety management systems

Safety Policy and Objectives

Management commitment and responsibility: Commitment of the senior management to safety is reflected in a policy statement, which is signed by the Accountable Executive.
(ICAO Annex 6, 3.3.5; Appendix 7, 1.1)

Safety accountabilities: A statement of accountabilities clearly defines safety responsibilities of
managers and employees at different levels in the organization, with effective deputation of responsibilities established for operationally critical areas when principal office holders are absent.
(ICAO Annex 6, 3.3.5; Appendix 7, 1.2)

Appointment of key safety personnel: The Safety Manager, in most organizations, will be the person to whom the Accountable Executive has assigned the daily oversight functions of the SMS.
(ICAO Annex 6, 3.3.5; Appendix 7, 1.3)

Coordination of emergency response planning: Service providers implement an Emergency Response Program (ERP) that includes contingency plans to ensure proper response throughout the organization when an emergency situation arises. This may not necessarily involve an actual aircraft accident, but should include a business continuity contingency plan.
(ICAO Annex 6, 3.3.5; Appendix 7, 1.4)

ICAO four pillars for aviation safety management system

SMS documentation: Safety management activities must be documented appropriately and be available to all employees.
(ICAO Annex 6, 3.3.5; Appendix 7, 1.5)

Safety Risk Management (SRM)

Hazard identification: The airline must maintain processes that ensure that operational hazards are identified for all operational activities. Hazard identification is typically based on a combination of reactive, proactive, and predictive safety management methods.
(ICAO Annex 6, 3.3.5; Appendix 7, 2.1)

Risk assessment and mitigation: Individual hazards are analyzed; their consequences are assessed and communicated throughout the organization. Mitigation actions must be developed for those hazards presenting unacceptable operational risk.
(ICAO Annex 6, 3.3.5; Appendix 7, 2.2)

Safety Assurance as one ICAO four pillars for aviation safety management system

Safety Assurance (SA)

Safety performance monitoring and measurement: SA activities focus on assessing the health of the organization, with an emphasis on safety. Specific goals for improvements in all areas should be set for all senior operational managers. SA should include monitoring of external sources of safety information and include participation in regional safety groups or safety data sharing organizations.
(ICAO Annex 6, 3.3.5; Appendix 7, 3.1)

Management of change: External or internal changes may introduce new hazards to operational activities. Processes must exist to manage organizational responses to regulatory changes, major changes in operational procedures, or new activities such as new airport destinations. Safety reporting systems should have processes established to identify new risks and actively monitor performance in new areas of the operation.
(ICAO Annex 6, 3.3.5; Appendix 7, 3.2)

Continuous improvement of the SMS: SA utilizes quality tools such as internal evaluations or independent audits to assess organizational health from a safety perspective. Onsite assessments of operational management systems on a recurring basis provide opportunities for continuous improvement of processes and procedures for each functional area of the airline.
(ICAO Annex 6, 3.3.5; Appendix 7, 3.3)

Safety Promotion

Training and education: The airline must identify safety training requirements for each level of management and for each employee group. Safety training for operational personnel should address safety responsibilities, including complying with all operating and safety procedures, recognizing and reporting hazards, and ultimately ensuring that employees have the knowledge and skills to safely complete work activities.
(ICAO Annex 6, 3.3.5; Appendix 7, 4.1)

Safety communication: Communication of safety information is a key responsibility for the Safety Manager. Continuous improvement and learning is accomplished through the sharing of lessons learned from investigations, hazard report analysis, and operational safety assessments. Feedback to operational personnel, such as examples of procedural improvements as a result of safety reports, is an essential feature of safety communications.
(ICAO Annex 6, 3.3.5; Appendix 7, 4.2)

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™.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Four Pillars of Safety Management

SMS Hazard Reporting, Auditing Tools, Risk Management Based on 4 Pillars

Serving Airlines & Airports Across the World.

Custom SMS Software Systems Based on Four Pillars

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SMS Policy
- Top Management Support
- Responsibilities & Authorities
Risk Management
- Proactive Hazard Identification
- Risk Assessments
- Control Measures
- Corrective Actions Preventive Actions
Safety Assurance
- Auditing Processes
- Safety Performance Monitoring
- Safety Training
Safety Promotion
- Safety Communications
- Surveys
- Changing Employee Behaviours

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