Course Name: Aviation Safety and Security Systems

Assessment Element: Individual Assignment (SMS)

Introduction
Safety Management System (SMS) is being regarded as a principle throughout the global
aviation industry. It is being acknowledged as the next phase for the progression of safety in
aviation industry by organizations such as International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO),
Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and so on. It is also becoming a guideline for the safety
management beyond aviation. SMS for service providers and regulators will coordinate
modernized safety risk management and safety assurance approaches into repeatable and
proactive systems (Federal Aviation Administration 2016).

Safety Management System (SMS)

Safety management system is a standardized concept to managing safety, including the
crucial organizational structures, policies, accountabilities and procedures. Depending on the
size and complexity of the organization, SMS can be adjusted to each organizations’ needs.
Safety management can be considered as regulating activities of a particular business and
applying principles, frameworks and processes so that accidents can be prevented injuries and
risks can be minimized (Civil Aviation Safety Authority 2019). For aviation industry in
particular, ICAO sets the standards for SMS. SMS is a system to ensure the safe operation of
aircraft through efficiently managing the safety risks. This system is implemented for the
continuous improvement of safety levels by classifying hazards, collecting and evaluating
data and endlessly assessing safety risks. SMS is fundamental for aviation organizations
during the distribution of their products and services to identify hazards and manage safety
risks (International Civil Aviation Organization 2013).
Critical components of SMS
The ICAO SMS framework consists of four components and twelve elements which
represents the minimum requirements for SMS implementations (Vistair 2019).

Safety Policies and Objectives a. Management commitment and responsibility

b. Safety accountabilities
c. Appointment of key safety personnel
d. Coordination of emergency response planning
e. SMS documentation
Safety Risk Management a. Hazard identification
b. Safety risk assessment and mitigation
Safety Assurance a. Safety performance monitoring and
measurement
b. The management of change
c. Continuous improvement of the SMS
Safety Promotion a. Training education
b. Safety communication
Table (1): Four components and twelve elements of ICAO SMS framework (Vistair 2019)

The frame of reference for the SMS is created in accordance with the safety policies and
objectives. A safety policy describes the principles, processes and methods of the
organization to achieve the desirable safety outcomes. The safety objectives state the upper
management’s intentions to consolidate and improve safety continuously in every aspect of
their activities. The objectives could be indicated in terms of short-, medium- and long-term
safety goals. The aim of the safety risk management is to determine the hazards, assess the
risks and implement suitable mitigations during the delivery of the organization’s products
and services. Service providers should make sure that the risks related to safety in aviation
activities are well under control in order to achieve the safety performance goals. Systems
that are imperfect in the design, functionality, human interface or interactions with other
systems are caused by hazards. Before the system becomes functional, there should be a
careful analysis during the planning, design and implementation phases so that the potential
hazards can be identified. Having a good understanding of the system and its operating
environment is also crucial for achieving high levels of safety performance. Hazards could be
detected through the phase of operations from the reports of employees or incident
investigations (International Civil Aviation Organization 2013).

Safety assurance comprises implementing efficient process which assesses and records the
organization’s safety performance. Activities such as internal safety investigation,
management of change, monitoring, analysis and continuous improvement are included. In
addition, safety assurance makes sure that the SMS is operating as planned and is efficient.
The service provider has the responsibility to continually monitor the internal processes
including the operating environment to make changes if necessary or inconsistencies that
could potentially introduce emerging safety related risks. Safety assurance activities should
contain the development and implementation of disciplinary actions so that the systematic
deficiencies which have a potential safety impact could be recognized. A positive safety
culture is supported by safety promotion and creates an environment which is useful to
achieve the safety objectives of the service provider. Safety promotion is divided into two
features: safety communication and safety training. Efficient safety promotion and training
raises the awareness and perception of the importance of SMS throughout the organization,
which helps to create a positive safety culture. Necessary skills and knowledge are provided
through safety training, as well as raising the awareness of risk issues. The attitude for the
individual, which gives the sense of meaning to safety efforts are set by safety
communication. Ongoing communications are essential for maintaining SMS, from reporting
to raising awareness of safety issues. Safety communications and training promotes safety as
the best practice (International Civil Aviation Organization 2013).

Why are SMS important?

Every stakeholder of aviation industry knows that safety is crucial to the industry. Bad or
inefficient safety management systems could be disastrous and potentially lead to public
outrage, extensive scrutinies and drawn out legal actions. Absence of forethought and
analysis and poor management is often in close association with inefficiency and poor
business systems. Good management, engineering and human factor-related practises can be
achieved by the well-structured approach to safety management. Some general benefits of
SMS include: reducing the direct cost of incidents, aircraft and component damage, aircraft
recovery and lost time injuries, reduction in indirect costs such as insurance, business
reputation, etc. (Civil Aviation Safety Authority 2014).
SMSs are crucial for aviation industry since there are four ways of managing the safety levels
and their improvement. Firstly, safety policies and accountability for organizations are
established by creating formal safety management-oversight roles and employing qualified,
experienced professional to fill those roles. Second of all, management of safety risks are
formalized by implementing processes and procedures for classifying potential and actual
hazards, assessing safety risks and reducing them. Mitigation is carried out by informing the
safety risks and taking initiatives or passive measures to lower the risk to a reasonable level
and possibly eliminating all the risks. The third role of SMS is providing the certainty that
safety is being well maintained. Each aviation association’s SMS does this by implementing
standards of safety measurement and observing the safety performance of the organization to
make sure that they are continuously meeting the implemented standards. In certain cases
when the safety performance did not meet the established standards, the formal procedures
which were established previously are put into effect to make the organization’s safety
performance back up to the appropriate standards. Likewise, changes in organization’s safety
factors could take place in variety of ways, which allows the continuous improvement of the
SMS. Lastly, every aviation association’s SMS should provide the promotion of safety
through every level of the organization. This is done by providing the employees with safety
training and education programmes. Safety communication in the form of classes, posters,
videos, newsletters and etc. portray the essential part of the SMS’s safety-promotion function
(Kjelgaard 2016)

How have SMS evolved over time?

In the aviation industry, the evolution of SMS could be divided into three eras. The technical
era, the human factor era and the organizational era. The technical era lasted from early
1900s until the late 1960s. Aviation was a form of mass transportation where the safety
shortcomings were related to technical factors and technological failures. Therefore,
investigation and the improvement of technical factors were the focus of the safety
endeavours. Around the middle of the 20th century, there was a gradual decline in the number
of incidents because of the technological improvements. Safety processes were also
developed to embrace regulatory compliance and oversight (International Civil Aviation
Organization 2013).
Human factors era started during the early 1970s and ended during the mid-1990s. The
number of aviation accidents were considerably reduced due to the technological
advancements and enhancements to safety regulations. Aviation quickly became a safer mode
of transport and human factor issues were the focus of the safety endeavours. Even though
investment of resources were made for error mitigation, human performance continued to be
a main factor in accidents. By the early 1990s, it was understood that employees are working
in a complex environment, where multiple factors which have the potential to affect
behaviour are present. The present-day era which started since the mid-1990s is known as the
organizational era. Systematic perspective of safety began where organizational factors were
involved in addition to human and technical factors. The concept of “organizational accident”
was introduced, which outlines the impact of organizational culture and policies on the
efficiency of safety risk controls. Data collection and analysis of efforts were carried out
additionally to create the new proactive approach to safety. This new approach is established
on routine collection and analysis of data using reactive methodologies to control known
safety risks and detect safety issues which could develop. The rationale for moving towards a
safety management approach were formulated by these enhancements (International Civil
Aviation Organization 2013).

Contribution of safety culture to the effectiveness of SMS

According to Prof. James Reason, there are five different types of safety culture. They are-
Informed Culture, Reporting Culture, Learning Culture, Just Culture and Flexible Culture
(Air Safety Support International 2018).

An Informed Culture is a culture that collects and analyses data to inform and improve safety.
Organizations that had implemented this culture will want to understand the safety systems
and use the collected data to shape how the security of their transport activities are managed.
They would also consider using tools and technologies which will potentially enhance
operational safety outcomes. Organizations that have a Reporting Culture will consist of the
employees who willingly report the hazards, incidents and near misses without the fear of
blame or disciplinary action. If a safety concern is reported and blaming is the first option for
honest mistakes and errors, people could be hesitant to report the issues in the future. The
willingness to improve safety based on new and informed information is present for an
organization with a Learning Culture. They would collect and measure data which are related
to safety and will aim to improve the safety levels of their transport activities (National
Heavy Vehicle Regulator 2018).

An organization which adopts just culture recognizes the significance of establishing an

atmosphere of trust, where the safety-related information and reports of employees are
welcomed. It is made certain for employees that if they were involved in or report an
accident, there won’t be any blaming for honest mistakes or for the situations which are
beyond their control or influence. It is important for employees to understand which type of
violations are tolerable and which are not, since some violations could be wilful. Flexible
culture enables the organization to have the ability to adapt to changes and not get hold off by
challenges and issues which appear suddenly. They must be prepared for changes and plan to
assign people with the essential expertise to deal with the challenges that arose (National
Heavy Vehicle Regulator 2018).

Conclusion
Improving air safety had been the main priority for the aviation industry and it is important to
have an acceptable air safety record for an airline’s success. An effective SMS uses risk and
quality management methods to obtain its safety related ambitions and is also a standardized
approach to managing safety. The SMS aims to lessen the risks before they result in aviation
accidents and incidents. Thus, implementation of SMS is crucial for organizations in the
aviation industry since it gives the management a structured set of implementations which
will meet the safety related responsibilities as defined by the regulators.
Reference List
Air Safety Support International 2018, Safety Culture, viewed 20 August 2019,
<https://www.airsafety.aero/Safety-Information-and-Reporting/Safety-Management-
Systems/Safety-Culture.aspx>.

Civil Aviation Safety Authority 2014, Safety Management System basics, viewed 20 August
2019, <https://www.casa.gov.au/sites/g/files/net351/f/_assets/main/sms/download/2014-sms-
book1-safety-management-system-basics.pdf>.

Civil Aviation Safety Authority 2019, What is safety management and safety management
systems?, viewed 18 August 2019, <https://www.casa.gov.au/safety-management/safety-
management-systems/what-safety-management-and-safety-management-systems>.

Federal Aviation Administration 2016, Safety Management System: SMS Explained, viewed
20 August 2019, <https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/sms/explained/>.

International Civil Aviation Organization 2013, Safety Management Manual (SMM), viewed
15 August 2019,
<https://www.icao.int/safety/SafetyManagement/Documents/Doc.9859.3rd%20Edition.alltext
.en.pdf>.

Kjelgaard, C 2016, How Safety Management Systems Can Make Aviation Safer, MRO
Network, viewed 22 August 2019, <https://www.mro-network.com/maintenance-repair-
overhaul/how-safety-management-systems-can-make-aviation-safer>.

National Heavy Vehicle Regulator 2018, Positive Safety Culture – Quick Guide, viewed 18
August 2019, <https://www.nhvr.gov.au/files/201811-0937-sms-quick-guide-positive-safety-
culture.pdf>.

Vistair 2019, AVIATION SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS, viewed 22 August 2019,

<https://www.vistair.com/aviation-safety-management-system>.