Aviation Safety Management Systems (SMS): safety officer

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Why Do You Need Description of Aviation Safety Manager Duties & Responsibilities

Why Do You Need Description of Aviation Safety Manager

Occasionally, your airline or airport managers will need to know what are the duties and responsibilities of the safety manager for the airline or airport aviation safety management system. Here are some quick examples:

When hiring a new safety manager, you will certainly need to communicate to prospective applicants what will be the job duties; or
When completing the job duties and requirements of key safety personnel which is required under the Safety Policy component of an aviation SMS program; or
When conducting periodic job performance reviews of the airline or airport safety manager.

Safety Manager Description

Airline/Airport Safety Manager has been commonly an upper management appointment. Safety managers require higher levels of authority within the airline or airport when dealing with safety matters. To ensure/safeguard this degree of authority, safety managers should report directly to the accountable executive.

Safety Manager Attributes

airline airport aviation safety manager job description

Operational management experience with a technical background sufficient to understand the interacting systems within the organization;

People skills;
Problem solving skills;
Project management skills;
Communication skills (oral and written); and
Computer skills to operate relevant software.

The accountable executive remains responsible for the aviation safety management system (SMS).

Accountable executives delegate the administration of the SMS to safety manager.

Typical Job Functions of Safety Managers

Conduct gap analysis periodically to determine health of SMS;
Manage SMS implementation plan as delegated by accountable executive;
Regularly update accountable executive of current safety concerns;
Administer risk management processes (hazard identification, risk assessments and risk mitigation);
Monitor corrective actions to ensure accomplishment;
Monitor safety performance and communicate performance to management;
Maintain airline/airport safety documentation;
Organize new employee safety training (SMS Induction);
Organize staff safety training;
Prepare or coordinate safety promotion communications (newsletters, workplace posters, etc);
Manage proactive hazard identification systems; and
Be involved in safety-related investigations.

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™.

Friday, April 5, 2013

Safety Audit Compels Risk Management Workflow Change Toward Issue Responsibility

Aviation Safety Officer Initial Responsibility Toward Reported Accidents/Incidents

When airline or airport employees report accidents and incidents, these reported issues move through a process that may look as follows:

Safety audit find regarding aviation safety officer responsibility

Aviation hazard/accident is reported;
Safety manager is notified;
Safety manager assesses risk;
Safety manager classifies issue;
Safety manager assigns issue to responsible department head;
Department head manages corrective/preventive actions (CPAs);
Investigation team conducts investigation (if required);
Safety manager closes issue when all items completed (CPAs and investigation);
Safety manager monitors/tracks issue for recurrence;
Safety team reviews issue on future schedule to validate effectiveness of CPAs.

Aviation Risk Management Responsibility Discovered in Aviation Safety Audit

Airline airport Safety audit find regarding aviation safety officer responsibility

Every aviation risk management system follows a similar workflow as outlined above. It is the responsibility of every airline/airport employee to report identified hazards and incidents. After the issue has been reported, it then becomes the safety manager's responsibility to ensure the issue is properly managed throughout the lifetime of this issue. Let's not forget that the accountable executive is ultimately responsible, but this responsibility has been delegated to the safety manager.

In many cases, reported issues don't require large teams to mitigate the risk or apply the corrective/preventive actions. Often the safety manager will simply remedy the situation, close the reported issue, and monitor the effectiveness of the applied CPAs. In effect, the safety manager becomes the "responsible manager" for these easily managed issues.

Past SMS Pro Shortcoming Regarding Reported Issue Responsibility

For more than five years, SMS Pro assumed that safety managers would assign a department head to all reported issues. The step is part of the flexible workflow that is optional. In early 2013, Transport Canada aviation safety auditors discovered that sometimes a safety manager would apply the corrective preventive action himself and never formally assign the issue to a department head. In short, the reported hazard or event was unassigned. This was a valid finding. Every reported issue must have an owner. Somebody must be responsible for managing this issue, however trivial it may appear.

When this finding appeared, SMS Pro support staff raised their eyebrows. In an effort to provide a flexible workflow, we overlooked a fundamental tenet in aviation risk management. Every issue must have a responsible manager...

Solution to Aviation Safety Audit's Reported Issue Responsibility

To prevent future aviation safety auditors to apply this finding to other airlines and airports using SMS Pro, the workflow of SMS Pro has been slightly modified.

Since February 2013, issues are automatically assigned to the "default" safety manager for the division for which the issue belongs to. It is important for safety managers to understand the reasoning behind this automatic assignment as outlined above. This information was announced in an email in February 2013, but seems to have been overlooked. Hence this blog post explaining the logic behind the automated assignment of the safety manager as the responsible manager to each reported issue.