To be effective our Maintenance Error Management System should be composed of multiple elements working together to deliver an effective system.
Consider:
a) Training
b) Competence
c) Procedures
We have seen over the last decades the employment of a system which focuses on reactive analysis of incidents and accidents. We also have seen that together with the technical improvements of Aircraft and Aircraft systems that a plateau has been reached where without making changes it will be difficult to see further improvements.
Driven by ICAO this has led to the introduction of a proactive safety management system which endeavour’s to understand the risk and to implement changes to the control and management processes. Recognizing the most effective solutions is delivered as part of an integrated business approach.
SMS is often misunderstood it should not involve an additional layer of oversight on the organization. If correctly implemented, it should be a range of behaviours and processes embedded within the normal working environment.
A fundament of both safety and error management recognizes that we will always have hazards and together with human error we will have incidents and accidents. Therefore we need to develop a system approach which:
a) Recognizes
b) Assesses
c) Mitigates
d) Communicate
SMS should be considered as a Top Down approach, meaning that we need a range of prerequisites to make it successful, including:
i/ Proactive Identification of Hazards
ii/ A process for managing risk
iii/ Goal Setting
iv/ Planning
v/ Management commitment (can not be understated)
vi/ Evaluation of Performance
SMS / MEMS should not bring a radical change in direction rather it should build on the existing processes and systems, however it should be understood that SMS is a performance based system, therefore the approach must accept that to be effective the competency of those involved needs to be managed to ensure an organisational standardized approach to limit the variability.
Because human and organizational errors will occur we need to minimize our exposure through the development of safety orientated cultures. An SMS usually requires cultural changes to refocus the organisations employees regarding the role of safety throughout the entire organization. In fact many procedures will need to be re-written to ensure that we have a set of procedures which are easy to understand and avoid misleading information.
Safety Assurance shall be delivered through a range of activities for example Safety Assessments and System Compliance Audits that will provide us with confidence that the organization is meeting or exceeding all safety objectives.
Sofema Aviation Services www.sassofia.com and our sister company SofemaOnline www.sofemaonline.com provide classroom and online training for regulatory and vocational training fully compliant with EASA requirements. Please email team@sassofia.com for requests.
