The aviation industry is both complex and unique. The demands on employees are great and, in many cases, the requirements are not accurately communicated to upper management. As a result of recent major airline disasters, passengers and regulators both demand an increased level of safety but are unwilling to accept the price of safety. This is further emphasized in recent legislative requirements for airlines to implement a systematic approach to safety management or SMS. The core requirement for an SMS is an effective method of identifying and controlling risk. The concept is described by ICAO as

The risks and costs in commercial aviation necessitate a rational process for decision-making. Daily, operators and managers make decisions in real time, weighing the probability and severity of any adverse consequences implied by the risk against the expected gain of taking the risk. This process is known as risk management.

The bottom line in the aviation industry is to implement safety improvements in the most cost-effective manner possible. The Operational Risk Management (ORM) approach will give your safety program the tools and methods necessary to meet the requirements of a Safety Management System for identifying and controlling risk. Without such knowledge, it is unlikely that any organization can fully and effectively meet the standards for an SMS.

Risk Management is a systems-based approach that focuses on the identification of hazards involved in each aspect of the operation, whether it involves aircraft flight operations, cockpit procedures, aircraft maintenance, turn-around, ticketing, scheduling, or baggage handling. As an integral and required part of a Safety Management System, Operational Risk Management formalizes this approach by implementing a logic-driven process to analyze the degree of risk associated with identified hazards, recommending Risk-based solutions, and monitoring the effectiveness of these solutions. This method is graphically demonstrated by the ICAO model shown below. Called “The Modern Approach to Safety” it is in effect, a model of the ORM approach as taught by SCSI.

This ORM course has taken the best features of existing processes and combined them with key elements of accepted aviation safety practices to develop the only commercial course of its kind. This course provides a focused, systematic, easy-to-use method for you to identify and analyze risks and then take action to either eliminate or minimize those risks to an acceptable level.

Any safety officer who wants a more effective, realistic approach to safety program management and to develop an effective safety management system.

Managers and supervisors who have responsibility for controlling risk

• You will be introduced to modern "risk-based" approaches to safety program management
• You will learn the process of risk identification and assessments, and will actually employ these techniques in problem solving exercises
• You will learn how to employ many of the "traditional" tools of the safety manager in a more effective way by addressing and prioritizing key risks within your organization
• You will be introduced to Operational Risk Profiling and procedures specifically developed for Aviation Operations
• You will be able to develop and implement a risk management program within your organization that is fully integrated with your SMS
• ORM is one of the courses required in the Management section of the SCSI Certificate In Aviation Safety
• This course is accepted by the Board of Certified Safety Professionals for Continuance of Certification Credit.
• SCSI will award 3.6 CEUs to each participant who successfully completes this course.

The Theory of Risk

The Risk Management Process in a Safety Management System

Identifying Hazards

The Five Fundamentals of Safety Risk Management

Safety Risk Management

Safety Risk Probability

Safety Risk Severity

Safety Risk Tolerability

Safety Risk Control

Risk Assessment

Quantitative Risk Management and ROI (Making the Business Case For Safety)

Strategies for Risk Control

Follow-up Action Steps

Using Traditional Safety Tools in Risk Management

Building an Effective Risk Management Program

Operational Risk Profiling

Electronic Hazard Control & Tracking with SMSPro

Taught at the DoubleTree Hotel on the waterfront in San Pedro in Southern California, the Operational Risk Management Course consists of 4.5 days (36 hours) of classroom instruction. Participants receive lecture outlines, additional reference material, and a Certificate of Completion. Classes begin at 0800 and end at noon on the last day.

The ORM course is also available on the web as a distance learning course.

SCSI will also arrange for delivery of this course under contract at a location and duration of your choice.

• "Great exercises! Good personal examples and applications. Makes concepts more understandable."
• "Outstanding course."
• "Excellent instruction on the variety of different methods to analyze an operation to understand, mitigate or eliminate risk."
• "Very interesting course. Lot of lessons learned and tools to take back from it."
• "instructor friendliness encouraged interaction with all"
• "I liked everything. It really opened my eyes about Quantitative ORM. I learned a lot."
• "It gave me a new way of looking at safety -- safety makes money."