ICAO SMS - Make Sure You Are Safe With These Tools

By Brian Bowie

Manual Masters LLC

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One aspect of a well designed SMS program is safety assurance.

Safety risk management is only half of the battle when it comes

to a well run safety management system. The reason is because

once you have identified your hazards, analyzed the risk and

controlled them to an acceptable level, you will need to ensure

they are working properly. If you do not monitor your system’s

operations and processes, your system will likely drift back to

an area of unacceptable risk. Over time you will likely have an

accident or incident. This is where safety assurance comes in.

Safety assurance will identify processes and procedures that

are not working as planned leading to an unacceptable level of

risk. Safety assurance will also identify non-compliance with

processes and procedures. This non-compliance will increase

your risk factor as well. There are many tools the safety

manager can use to identify both of these issues with your SMS

program. Let’s briefly discuss a few of the SMS tools available.

The first tool is continuous monitoring of the system. The safety

manager will ensure that the system is being continuously

monitored for potential safety issues and hazards. The main

way to do this is to monitor and analyze operational data. Some

of the items that can be monitored are things like flight logs,

maintenance logs, crew duty reports, unusual occurrence

reports, time cards, process sheets and reports from the

employee feedback system.

The next tool is internal audits by operational departments. The

safety manager should develop an audit procedure that will be

carried out by line managers from time to time. The reason for

line managers to complete this audit is that they have firsthand

knowledge of the specific processes and procedures involved.

This firsthand knowledge will make it easier for them to spot a

safety issue. An outsider without any specific knowledge of the

system will not be as likely to notice some safety issues.

The third tool is and internal evaluation. The safety manager

should design an internal evaluation to evaluate the operations

to ensure that it conforms to SMS objectives and expectations.

These evaluations should be completed at specific intervals and

completed by specific individuals that are trained to complete

these evaluations. Unlike the internal evaluations by

operational departments, these evaluations need be conducted

by someone that is independent of the process being

evaluated. This provides a double check of the system. You

have an insider with specific knowledge checking the system

and then you also have an outsider checking the system as well

to ensure that every possible safety issue is found and

addressed.

The fourth tool is external audits of the safety management

system. This could be a formal external audit by an audit

company or just the FAA when they come into evaluate the

operation.

The fifth tool is investigation. All incidents and accidents should

be investigate not only as to the root cause but also as to how

the system can be enhanced to prevent similar issues in the

future. Also any reports of non-compliance with processes and

procedures (including regulatory non-compliance should also

be investigated) and analyzed as well.

The sixth tool is one of the most important tools. This tool is the

employee reporting and feedback system. The safety manager

needs to design an system to allow employees to report any

safety issues or hazards that they notice. The safety manager

then needs to promote this system so that the employees feel

comfortable making reports and that they will not be punished

in any way for making these hazard reports.

Safety assurance is a very important process in the SMS loop.

Without it, the loop will be broken and the operation will drift

off into an area of unacceptable risk. The good news is that

there are many simple tools to help ensure your SMS program

is meeting its objectives and expectations.