International Helicopter Safety Team Safety Management System Toolkit

SMS Purpose & Methods
• The purpose of a safety management system is to provide a
systematic way to control risk and to provide assurance that
those risk controls are effective.
• The SMS will give certificate holders a formal means of meeting
statutory safety requirements (title 49) and the FAA a means of
evaluating management capability.
Safety Management Systems – Flight Standards
How does an SMS differ
from traditional
approaches?
Implementing an SMS does not involve the regulator
imposing an additional layer of oversight on the
aviation industry. The traditional flight safety approach
depended on a flight safety officer or a department in
a large organization, independent from operations
management, but reporting to the chief executive of
the organization. The Safety Officer had no authority
to make changes that would enhance safety. The
safety officer depended on his/her ability to persuade
management to act. An SMS holds managers accountable
for safety related performance.
Establishing safety as a core value:
Everyone in the organization must buy into
making safety a core value, with top management as
the guiding light. A positive safety culture is invaluable
in encouraging the kind of behavior that will
enhance safety. Positively re-enforcing safetyconscious
actions sends the message that management
cares about safety.
The best way to establish safety as a core value is
to make safety an integral part of the management
plan and by holding managers accountable.
SMS business tools for managers:
It is important to view an SMS as an operations tool
for management. The risk management processes within
the SMS includes the need to determine the cost of
implementing versus not implementing control measures.
Example:
A two-aircraft, four-pilot organization experiences
their third $5,000 hot-start incident in two years
caused by the poor starting technique combined with
Federal Aviation Administration
Courtesy of Don Arendt, PhD, FAA SMS Program Manager
weak aircraft batteries. The top manager determines,
through discussions with the chief pilot, that a one-time
training expense of $2,000 will prevent a recurrence.
The cost of implementing the solution is $8,000
($2,000 X 4 pilots = $8,000). The cost of not
implementing the solution is $15,000 ($5,000 X 3
hot starts = $15,000).
However, training may not be the only answer. In
the same scenario, if the training costs $20,000, it
would be more cost effective to install equipment that
prevents hot starts if it can be done for $12,000.
Simple models that help managers arrive at the
most appropriate answers are provided in this SMS
Toolkit. These models can ensure that even the smallest
operator can achieve their safety goals without using
a complex SMS.
There are tools available to perform more detailed
and complex financial analysis that are easily used
by aviation management professionals. One tool is
the Return On Health, Safety and Environmental
Investments (ROHSEI) software tool developed by
ORC. Fifteen member companies of the ORC (ORC)
Occupational Safety and Health Group – ALCOA,
AlliedSignal, ARCO, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb,
Colgate-Palmolive, Dow, Duke Power, Eli Lilly, IBM,
Johnson & Johnson, Monsanto, M&M Mars, Rhone-
Poulenc Rorer, Schering-Plough – formed a task force
to work with ORC and Arthur Andersen to tailor
traditional financial investment analysis approaches
and apply them to achieve a better understanding of
the business impacts of health, safety and environmental
investments. To accomplish these objectives,
the project had to go beyond measures of failure to
formulate a set of analytical tools to provide
cost/benefit information for making effective cost/risk
decisions. Additional information is available on
ORC’s website at: www.orc-ap.com.
4 SMS Toolkit