Safety Management Systems
The transition to a Safety Management System
(SMS) approach to aviation safety has been well underway since 2002 and SCSI
has been in the forefront of teaching SMS commencing in 2002. The SCSI
SMS courses and certificate program has been developed and refined during
these SMS transitional years to keep pace with SMS developments. From
Canada, Australia and the UK, SMS has now been incorporated by ICAO into its
recommended guidelines. Most recently SMS has been mandated in the United
States by congress and the FAA. The SCSI SMS course and certificate
program is constantly reviewed and updated by SCSI SMS experts to provide
you with state-of-the-art information about SMS as well as lessons learned
in implementing SMS during these transitional years.
For those of you more familiar
with the term "Safety Program Management," please note that SMS is
characterized by some as a traditional safety
program refined, enhanced, built upon, and integrated completely into an organization. In fact,
SMS encompasses everything in a traditional safety program management course
plus a whole lot more. If you do what we teach you to do, you will have a
cutting edge program in SMS.
In the 1990’s the term
“organizational accident” emerged in formal recognition that most
of the factors that lead to accidents are under the control of the
organization rather than “individuals”. Since the greatest
threats to aviation safety are embedded within organizations,
preventing accidents requires organizational action. Safety
Management Systems (SMS) represents a systems approach to safety
management in organizations. The need for a systems approach to
aviation safety has been recognized for some time.
SMS is a systematic, explicit, and
comprehensive approach to reducing threats to aviation safety
embedded in organizations. It provides for goal setting,
planning, and measuring performance in an organizational context. It
integrates operations and technical systems with financial and
human resources. SMS is woven into the fabric of an
organization. It concerns itself with organizational safety. Properly understood and implemented
it becomes a part of the organizational culture, the way people
do their jobs.
SMS provides an organization with
the ability to anticipate and address safety issues before they
lead to an incident or accident. An SMS can reduce losses and
improve productivity. A key feature of an SMS is that it holds
line managers accountable for safety related action or inaction
compared to a traditional approach to safety which relegated
responsibility for safety to a staff position.
Those who take this certificate
program will become change agents in their organizations. They
will be able to facilitate an organizational transition from a
traditional safety approach to SMS. In effect, this will
transition safety from a staff function to a direct line
responsibility. They will help foster an organizational climate
where safety is a core value.
SCSI SMS expert instructors, who have
actually worked implementing SMS in organizations, have created
and constantly update our SMS certificate program. Based on student
feedback over the past six years and experience and lessons learned in
implementing SMS in airlines both large and small, as well as
incorporating the newest guidelines published by ICAO and regulatory
agencies such as Transport Canada and the FAA, the SMS certificate
program now consists of the following courses:
-
SMS - Essentials
(SMS-E).
This course presents and discusses the organizational
components of an SMS and the SMS Risk Control Process to
safety professionals who may know nothing about Safety
Management Systems, or those who may simply want to review
their SMS and make sure all the pieces are in place.
Toward that end, the course shows attendees how to do a "Gaps Analysis" which focuses
on how to
discover any Gaps in your current SMS and Risk Control
Process.
-
SMS Workshop
(SMS-W).
Designed to be a practical "close the gaps" workshop with a
focus on how to discover "gaps" in an SMS and then the
workshop presents and discusses how to apply the tools and techniques that can close "gaps" that
have been identified in a gaps analysis.
-
Human and Organizational Factors in Safety Management
Systems (HOFSMS). This course
focuses on the human and organizational factors
(organizational behavior, communication, change. climate and
culture) in creating, transitioning to or implementing an
SMS. Topics include the well known ways people resist
change, and ways to successfully overcome resistance to
change.
-
Operational Risk Management (ORM). This course
focuses on the Risk Control Process and teaches safety
professionals "management talk" and how to "make the
business case for SMS" to managers at all levels.
Required Courses (4)
1.
(SMS-E) Safety
Management Systems Essentials: [a self paced web-based DL
course or a one week classroom course]. This course will be taken by Distance Learning or in a
traditional classroom in Prague or in Southern California at the
Pacific Palms Training Center .
What is a Safety Management System? Why
do I need one? How
do I create one? How do I use it? How do I evaluate my SMS?
If you are asking these questions and
others like them, this essentials course is for you! SCSI has created
this focused, hard hitting course available to you on the web or in the
classroom.
The course is designed to help you
understand and create
-
An SMS-based Risk Control
Process
-
An ICAO-based SMS
Organization with its 10 SMS Organizational Components
and how these components are present in regulatory
guidelines such as those issued by Transport Canada and
the FAA.
-
An initial Gaps Analysis
The Essentials of a Safety
Management Systems Course is intended for those who are new
to Safety, Safety Management Systems, or who would like a
comprehensive refresher in Safety Management Systems. The
course features:
-
A close look at what it takes to
get top management involved in and support for an SMS. The
course features how to talk "management talk" and "how to make
the business case for SMS."
-
A description of the SMS components.
The reasoning behind why each component is part of an SMS. (i.e., What is the component and Why is it needed?)
-
Information and/or checklists on
how to create or evaluate that component. (i.e., How do I get
started on this component? What should the component look like
when I finish creating it?)
-
Case studies, examples, and
exercises illustrating how that component functions as part of
an SMS (i.e., What does this component actually do)
-
Case studies, example, and
exercises illustrating how that component interacts with the
other components of the SMS to help you turn information into
action. (i.e., How does this component fit in with all the other
components?)
-
Gaps Analysis studies, examples,
and exercises to introduce the concept of a "gaps analysis".
The focus in on how to compare what you have with what you
should have in the way of an SMS.
A fully functioning SMS centers on
identifying hazards that are present and then establishing and
implementing actions to control those hazards before they result
in an accident or incident. This course will walk you through the
SMS Risk Control Process using several examples to show you the
Risk Control Process and how the SMS
components act and interact to accomplish this.
2. (SMS-W)
Safety Management Systems-Workshop. [1 week course.] As
a follow on to SMS essentials and Gaps Analysis training, this fast-paced, intensive
workshop is designed for those who are more experienced in safety
and already know what needs to be in a safety management system or
may already have a safety system in place and want to evaluate and
update it. This workshop assumes every attendee already knows the SMS essentials
and has developed a least a preliminary analysis of any gaps
that may exist in their own SMS. This workshop goes beyond essentials and case
studies of someone else’s SMS, and it goes beyond a gaps
analysis, and instead requires attendees to
bring to class their own preliminary gaps analysis--where practical--so they can
start learning how to close those gaps. Attendees
leave this workshop with a comprehensive set of tools and checklists
to help identify and close gaps in an existing SMS.
3.
(HOFSMS)
Human and Organizational Factors
in Safety Management Systems (Aviation). [1 week
course.]
Safety managers as change
agents. Organizational behavior, communication and change.
Facilitating organizational transitions from a traditional
safety approach to SMS. Fostering an organizational climate where safety is a
core value. Successful tools, techniques, and best practices
to introduce change in organizations. Typical barriers and
booby traps that can impact the pace, receptiveness, and
thoroughness of organizational changes in practices and procedures
as well as cultures and climate that will impact your ability to
transition to an effective SMS and SMS based risk control
process.
4.
(ORM)
Operational
Risk Management. [available by distance
learning or by contract] This course contributes to the Safety
Management Systems Certificate Program by providing a proactive
approach to hazard identification, associated levels of risk, and
mission impact. It enhances the SMS risk control process. The
course also presents the details about "how to make the business
case" for SMS to line managers at all levels including top
management.
Electives (any 2)
(RECS) Accident
Prevention Through Safety Recommendations [1 week course]
This course covers all aspects of
developing and responding to safety recommendations. Students
will learn how to identify safety problems that need correcting,
and when to make recommendations. Some safety problems uncovered
during an investigation require urgent consideration and immediate
action to avoid a similar accident, while others can wait for the
completion of the investigation. The course will cover the role
of parties in recommendation development and look at the process
from the perspective of the eventual recipient of the
recommendations.
Not only does this course cover recommendations that result from
investigations conducted by official government accident
investigation agencies (such as the NTSB in the U.S.), it also
covers recommendations that come from incident and accident
investigations conducted by government regulatory agencies (such
as the FAA) and by industry investigators (such as airlines or
airplane manufacturers) reviewing problems in their own operations
and procedures. In this sense safety recommendations can be
looked upon as the most important accident prevention tool.
(HEAP)
Human Error and Accident Prevention. [1 week course]
Course description under development.
(HFMO)
Human Factors in Maintenance Operations.
(1 week course).
This course,
designed by Gary Hook,
focuses on the identification and management of the human factors
that are encountered in all aspects of aircraft maintenance
operations. The course features presentations, interactive
discussions, workshops, and data management procedures.
(ISMS) Investigation for Safety Management
Systems. [1 week
course.]
Designed for
managers who will not themselves become investigators but who will
work with investigators, this course contributes to the
Safety Management Systems Certificate Program by exposing managers
to the knowledge, tools, and techniques necessary to investigate
accidents and incidents as required by an implementation of SMS.
(RMS)
Ramp and
Maintenance Safety. [1 week course] This course contributes to the Safety
Management Systems Certificate Program by providing best safety
practices for ramp and maintenance operations. Compliance with
occupational safety requirements, maintenance resource management,
and data collection and utilization are incorporated. The role of
ramp and maintenance safety in establishing safety goals, a safety
culture, audits and risk management are presented.
(PSS) Practical
System Safety. [1 week course] This course contributes to the Safety
Management Systems Certificate Program by providing an in-depth
review of tools and techniques used to evaluate operations,
facilities, equipment, and life cycle activities as part of the
risk management, safety audits and assessments, and hazard
identification features of SMS. Tools presented include fault
tree analysis, critical incident analysis, zonal analysis, and
job hazard analysis.
(SDM)
Safety
Decision Making. [1
week course]
This course contributes to the Safety Management Systems
Certificate Program by providing an in-depth review of and a hands
on practice with making the decisions required in implementing and
maintaining Safety Management Systems. Included are the
tools and techniques of decision making such as decision analysis,
cost-benefit analysis, cost-effectiveness, multiple attribute
decision making including the use of stoplight charts, systems
analysis, financial decision making, and quantitative risk
analysis and risk reduction. Individual and Organizational
aspects of decision making are reviewed as well.
(MSMS)
Managing an SMS [1 week course
- a new course under development]. This course will focus
on what it means to be a manager and will cover the functions of
management (planning, organizing, staffing, leading and
controlling), and associated management tools and techniques as
applied to managing a Safety Management System. This is a
"management 101" for safety professionals who have not had a
course in management and will be responsible for managing or
making management recommendations to managers who have line
responsibility for Safety Management Systems.
(SMSDBE)
SMS Database Essentials. [1
week course - a new course under development. Available July or
August
2008]. One of the
key elements in any SMS is the information system and data supporting it.
Many safety professionals have little or no background in data
bases, data base management systems, data collection and entry. This course is designed to provide safety
professionals with database essentials focusing on
how to collect, input, store, and use the data which is so critical to
successful safety management systems.
