Welcome to the SMS Partners newsletter! This month's newsletter discusses corporate safety cultures and how a Safety Management System (SMS) is really an overall aviation management system. If there are any specific SMS topics that you would like to read about, or if you have any questions, please send us an e-mail. And of course, if you like what you are reading, please forward this e-mail to a friend!

Corporate Safety Culture 

Safety Management System = Aviation Management Systems

In the large majority of aviation organizations safety is always touted as the number one priority. As with many industries a safety driven environment is of paramount importance. In the airline industry, often thought of by other industries as having safety down to a science, regulatory requirements are a great driver and motivator as is the marketplace. But there are other contributors to the stellar airline industry safety record including airplane design, industry best practices, information sharing, standards, human factors programs and crew resource management just to name a few.

Airlines and other aviation organizations operate in a very complex environment. Regulatory requirements span all operational areas and coordinating and integrating all compliance requirements with company processes and procedures is no easy task. There are very few industries that require such an in-depth integrated approach as the airline industry. Coordinating operations from passenger and cargo security, environment, safety and quality necessitate that these activities be coordinated across multiple departments, which is not an easy task even for a well disciplined company. A single incident or accident can encompass multiple areas in any organization.

Let's look at an example of an incident. A ground vehicle loses its brakes and hits an airplane during taxi, which damages both the airplane and the ground vehicle. A fuel spill ensues and a flight attendant falls in the cabin and is injured. As a result there is a maintenance issue with the ground vehicle's brakes as well as damage to the airplane and vehicle. There is an environmental event with the fuel spill, a safety/injury event with the flight attendant and a quality issue. The root cause determination spans across the cargo, ground services, maintenance, flight operations, in flight and safety departments.

In the above example, most companies would require that an incident report be submitted by each department creating a duplication of effort as well as communication and coordination challenges. With a Safety Management System in place, management has the tools to treat safety as a core business function rather than a standalone program. A Safety Management System (SMS) strives to standardize and streamline the process, foster collaboration across all departments and disciplines, consolidate data in a central repository, streamline hazard identification, facilitate corrective action assignments, enable risk assessment and root cause analysis, create event visibility and deliver company-wide reporting and communication via one system. Essentially SMS has the capability to serve as an operator's management system because it provides:

1. A quality management approach to controlling risk.
2. The organizational framework to support a strong safety and corporate culture.
3. An efficient means of interfacing with FAA certificate oversight offices.
4. A detailed roadmap for monitoring safety-related processes.
5. Internal evaluation and quality assurance concepts that can result in more structured management and continuous improvement of operational processes.
6. Integration of other systems such as quality, occupational safety and environmental control systems.
7. Added emphasis on process management and continuous improvement.
8. Financial and revenue benefits.
9. Employee training and communication platform.
10. Company uniformity, which saves time, money and limits confusion.