A Discussion Paper by Steve Bentley Group CEO of Sofema Aviation Services www.sassofia.com

Clearing up the Basic Stuff

SMS is not QMS by another name they are both separate and significantly important QMS together with Quality Assurance (QA) strives to deliver a fully compliant product or process, whereas SMS considers the risk associated with any & all business risks. SMS is both subjective & forward-looking. A fully functioning Safety Management System contributes to the viability of the organisation by addressing safety risks.

SMS should focus on real-time performance monitoring and reporting together with effective data analysis – a major challenge being to consider how to capture the required data across the business validly.

Top Down or Bottom up?

To be effective the Safety Management System must be led by the “Executive Team” means it has to be “top down”. However it is also of critical importance for an effective system that all employees are fully engaged – means they understand concerning their own job role what to report and how to report.

An Often-Held Misconception – SMS Implementation

A common misunderstanding concerns the believe that SMS implementation must be expensive. The reality is the opposite it is all about people engaging with processes that drive positive safety-aware changes to organisation behaviour (culture). Usually most of the elements required to develop an SMS, as well as the needed resources, typically exist within the organisation.

At the core of an effective ICAO-compliant Safety Management System which has been migrated from an existing safety system, it is usually necessary for a degree of reorientation as well as refocusing of existing safety processes and activities.

Supporting with effective ownership, documentation management & role-specific training across the business.

Where does “data” come from?

Data is the real challenge for any effective SMS. 

Bottom-up safety reporting by employees is a primary driver for safety data collection under SMS (It is also relatively inexpensive to deliver). Full engagement of all employees requires the communication of what to report as well as what does not need to be reported as well as how to report.

We must have information related to issues encountered during the delivery rather than any negative outcomes following issues with the delivery. In other words the “why” rather than the “what”.

We also need to identify “disconnects” which may not necessarily have adverse outcomes but can influence the overall effectiveness of the process negatively.

Consider that we are not looking for compliance status but rather to understand shortfalls in the effectiveness and resilience of the system service or process.

DATA Drives Decisions

Because SMS captures safety data from workplace activities on an ongoing basis, it generates a significant volume of data that allows senior leadership to reallocate safety resources, add further safety resources or remove those safety resources identified as unnecessary or ineffective.

It is through analysis of the SMS Data that the leadership team may allocate the appropriate resources to deliver the most effective mitigations.

Attendees to The Aviation Quality & Safety Management Symposium 2019 on Tues 14th May & Wed 15th May at Holiday Inn, Sofia, Bulgaria will consider further the challenges related to SMS Data acquisition.

‘If you are engaged in Aviation Quality & Safety Management in an EASA Environment this is your one ‘must attend’ event of the year!’