Aviation Safety Management Systems (SMS): sample safety policy

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Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Preparing the Aviation Safety Policy Statement

Preparing Your Airline/Airport Safety Policy Statement

Management supports aviation safety management systems (SMS) by establishing safety standards and policies for their respective airline or airport. To be effective, top management must encourage participation in the entire SMS process and strive to instill a sense of ownership within the rest of the management team. To instill this sense of ownership and lower resistance to change, top management must facilitate the flow of safety information. Furthermore, top management support encompasses supporting safety objectives by allocating required resources to those responsible for implementing the aviation safety management program.

Sample aviation safety policy template example

After acquiring top management support, the airline or airport's SMS champion will begin drafting a safety policy statement that must be accepted by upper management.

Safety Policy Statement

What is a safety policy statement? Your airline or airport's safety policy establishes a unified direction for the organization. An effective safety policy statement outlines the course of action within the airline or airport regarding all safety matters. Safety policy statements coherently express the vision of how your airline or airport reacts to safety related events.

What Should the Safety Policy Statement Achieve?

Every safety policy should be viewed as a management tool to communicate to all stakeholders top management's commitment to safe operations and continuous improvement. All staff and stakeholders should be able to easily understand that safety remains a management priority and is expected to be a priority for everyone interacting with the airline or airport. Safety policies should not be long laborious documents that require a college education to understand. The most effective safety policy should be written in a manner that a middle-school student can easily understand the content and intentions.

How Are Safety Policy Statements Drafted?

Your airline or airport should have a safety policy illustrating how safety is viewed and managed within your organization., and how it is considered as part of operations. To obtain regulatory approval of your aviation safety management system, every airline or airport will need to have their safety policies and objectives approved. This exercise if normally conducted (review of safety policy) after the airline or airport finishes the initial SMS documentation. Don't worry about making your SMS documentation perfect, as your SMS documentation should remain flexible and easily modifiable as regulatory requirements and the environmental influences induce change.

Every safety policy statement must be approved by the Accountable Executive or upper management. This approval process helps to document top management support for the commitment to safety management principles and the subsequent implementation. As stated earlier, the safety policy statement is normally developed during the intitial preparation of the SMS documentation.

Developing the Aviation Safety Policy Statement

Safety policy statements address high-level concepts. Perhaps the easiest way to draft the safety policy statement is by acquiring a safety policy template to use as an example. The safety policy template can be used in a brain storming session during a management meeting. In every case, keep the safety policy as simple as possible and limit to one page if possible.

Shallow empty platitudes, such as management's commitment to "make safety their highest priority" are not realistic. Many safety policies make these empty promises with little effect. Effective safety policies should consider:

Top management commitment to implement the aviation SMS
Top management commitment to devote necessary resources to the safety program
Organizational commitment to achieve continuous safety improvement
Non-punitive reporting statement to encourage reporting safety issues

This list is not exhaustive and every airline or airport will have a unique safety policy that outlines what is important to the operation.

After top management has an acceptable safety policy, the policy must signed and dated. Disseminate the safety policy statement to all employees and contractors. The safety policy should be reviewed on a regular basis. In most cases, this exercise is performed annually.

Examples of Safety Policy Statements & Other Aviation Policies

Safety Policy Statement Example

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™.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Safety Policy Statement Example Template

Aviation Safety Policy Statement Sample Templates for Airlines Airports

Every safety management system requires a safety policy statement. For most safety managers, coming up with a safety policy statement out of the blue is very hard to do. What does one look like? Where should I begin. Most of us find that a sample safety policy statement is the best way to begin writing your company's safety policy. SMS Pro™ (popular Web based safety management software) has a module to manage all policies and procedures. We also provide many examples of safety policy statements to our users when they setup their aviation safety management software. Here is a sample safety policy statement you can use as a template for your airline, airport, MRO or flight school.

Typically, the safety policy statement is written by the CEO (or accountable executive), but you may want to give your manager a helping hand. Without a doubt, the safety policy statement should be signed by the accountable executive.

Sample Safety Policy Statement Template for Airlines, Airports and Others

To prevent aviation accidents and incidents our organization will maintain an active safety management system. I support the open sharing of information on all safety issues and encourage all employees to report significant errors, safety hazards or concerns. I pledge that no staff member will be asked to compromise our safety standards to “get the job done”.

Safety is a corporate value of this company, and we believe in providing our employees and customers with a safe environment. All employees must comply with this policy.

Our overall safety objective is the proactive management of identifiable hazards and their associated risks with the intent to eliminate their potential for affecting aviation safety, and for injury to people and damage to equipment or the environment. To that end, we will continuously examine our operation for these hazards and find ways to minimize them. We will encourage hazards and incident reporting, train staff on safety management, document our findings and mitigation actions and strive for continuous improvement.

Ultimate responsibility for aviation safety in the company rests with me as the Chief Executive Officer/Accountable Manager. Responsibility for making our operations safer for everyone lies with each one of us – from managers to front-line employees. Each manager is responsible for implementing the safety management system in his or her area of responsibility, and will be held accountable to ensure that all reasonable steps are taken.

See: http://www.caas.gov.sg/caasWeb/export/sites/caas/en/Regulations_And_Guidelines/Guidelines_and_Manuals/AFO/Advisory_Circulars/download/AC_1-3_2_08.pdf

More Information About Managing Safety Policy Statements

All policies and procedures need to be reviewed on a regular basis. You will receive an audit finding when you do not have a mechanism in place that ensures your policies and procedures are reviewed, by whom, and the date they were last reviewed.

In SMS Pro's Policies & Procedures module, functionality exists to send notifications to managers when particular policies and procedures require review. The Policies & Procedures module is designed not for only safety and quality policies, but for all your policies and procedures to be visible by all employees.

You can easily see the review status of all policies and procedures. There is also a tab for you to show the civil aviation authority (CAA) auditors when they come to visit. This tab lists all your policies and procedures, the date last reviewed and who reviewed the safety policy or procedure. For more information about aviation safety management software and the Policy & Procedures module, see http://www.asms-pro.com/Modules/Policy/PolicyManager.aspx.

How to best help your
Aviation Safety Management System

Become an SMS PRO