Understanding Safety Management System (SMS) And Its Importance In Aviation

Evolution of SMS and its Importance in Aviation Safety

The SMS or Safety Management System deals with a comprehensive management system. This is developed for managing different elements of safety at the workplace (Bao, Xu and Qiu 2016). This consists of responsibilities, organization, procedures, plans, objectives, policy and additional measures.

In this report, various complex elements and corresponding elements within SMS as per ICAO system is identified and explained. It demonstrates how safety thinking has developed in due time including the evolution of the idea of SMS. The study shows how it can contribute to the efficient performance of SMS. Here a wide range of kinds of literature is demonstrated with practical instance including critical analysis from individual argumentation.

The SMS is a systematic approach to manage security that involves important organizations structures, procedures, policies and accountabilities as per ICAO. As per ESARR3, it is the explicit and systematic approach that defined tasks by which security management is done by business to gain tolerable and acceptable safety (Bilzhause et al. 2017). Its main aim is to deliver a structured management method to manage the security problems in various activities.

Smart SMS considers the specific structures of the company’s particular processes and structures that are related to the events. Same as other functions of management, it also needs providing direction, organizing and planning (Budd and Ison 2016). Its development has started with the setting of safety policies. This demonstrates the universal principles on which SMS is operated and created. Its initial phase covers the strategy to gain acceptable levels of safety under the company. The deployment and safety planning of procedures of SMS are the further essential steps in the measures developed in mitigating and consisting of risk in activities. As the standards are ready, the techniques of quality management are used to assure that they can gain the expected aims and the place they fail, there are scopes of development(Baldwin, 2017). Further, it is done through implementing the security assurance and process of evaluation that provides the constant monitoring of operations for the various sectors identified in safety development. Putting simply, this use challenges and managing of quality processes for gaining the security goals. Moreover, the SMS also delivers the framework to deploy and foster the enhancement of positive corporate security culture. The deployment provides the management with a structured set of tools for meeting the liabilities for security that is defined by those regulators.

The ICAO “Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPS)” has been promulgated in various types of Annexes to Chicago Convention that needs the deployment of security management through the following types of organizations of an aviation service provider.

• Airport operators
• Air navigation services providers
• Aircraft maintenance organizations

Components of Safety Management System

Recent amendments to the ICAO SARPS for incorporating the necessity o deploy the security management system (Guo and Zhong 2017). This is extended and harmonized to involve 2010 in training organizations and 2013 in aircraft manufacturers.

Since the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) SARPS has been not directly applicable under the regulatory and legislative frameworks, the states are intended to include the security programs and as the part of those programs, they must assure the service and operator provides in implementing the security management system. 

Besides, some parts of general aviation or GA in Singapore have also implemented SMS to their business like Changi International Airport. However, the extension of SMS processes across the GA presents particular issues for which the solutions are not found yet (Nobles 2019). Due to different relations taking place between the retailing bodies and various aviation service providers companies, it has been of vital significance in standardizing the SMS functions. This is to the extent that there is common knowledge of the importance of SMS. This is among all types of authorities and organizations (Oke and Onyegiri 2017). The ICAO SMA framework comprises of 4 elements and twelve elements. This deployment is commensurate with the size of the business and the complexity of the service provided.

SMS has vital importance due to the various ways of managing aviation safety and development. These are highlighted below.

• Firstly, they can establish an organizational framework through which aviation businesses can implement the accountabilities and policies. This includes the development of formal security management, experienced personnel, appointing qualified and oversight roles in filling them.
• Secondly, it formalizes the managing of security risks by delivering processes and procedures. This is to determine the actual and potential hazards along with analyzing the risk are security with mitigation. The eradication of risks is done by reporting the security risks and considering passive and active measures for reducing every risk to reasonable levels and removing those risks altogether.
• Thirdly, the role of SMS is to deliver assurance that the security is maintained. At Singapore, every aviation organization with SMS never deploys the limits the security measurement and control the safety performance to assure the security performance that continues to meet those benchmarks.   
• Moreover, they are also inherent under every safety assurance role that the mechanisms have been providing the management of changes. Here, the changes in the security circumstances occur in a broad range of ways. This also involves the processes to permit the constant development of SMS.
• Lastly, SMS of all the organizations of Singapore’s aviation has been provided to promote safety across all the organizational levels. This is done by deploying the education programs and safety training for the employees and mandating the re-training of employees where needed. This is followed by various related events and delays to find and determine the significant security hazards. 

For instance, in Singapore, the FAA or Federal Aviation Administration reveals in their online SMS briefing policies that the SMS provides both to the certificate holder and the FAA itself. The certificate holders are the product generators of aviation producers and service providers (Kiesling et al. 2016). Here, this includes the structured method of safety risk management decision making and the methods to demonstrate the capability of safety-management. This happens as the failure in the system takes place. Moreover, there is a rise in confidence to risk controls through which the processes of safety assurance. This is the active interface regarding sharing of knowledge between certificate holders and regulators with security promotion system for supporting the smart culture of safety (Matulevi?ius et al. 2016). As the SMS is appropriately structured, and delivered with proper regulatory reporting requirements, the data of safety hazards, safety promotions, measuring management of changes, benchmarks and risks are utilized for the safety risks. This needs most emergency attention and providing attention. Thus, the companies like FSF or Flight Safety Foundation and FAA can use the data from security management programs in looking for the most significant risks and then deal with elements well before that turn into accidents (Kong 2016). Their plans have been turning to be useful as they share the data.

Safety Policy and Objectives

The private flight sector of Singapore has been relatively small as compared to other nations. Most of their pilots move to neighbor Malaysia for flying for recreation (Price and Forrest 2016). They consist of one aviation club, known as the “Singapore Youth Flying Club” that is set up to train the teenagers expecting to enter the Air Force. This has also been providing the platform for aspiring pilots from various students of tertiary level. 

Commercial aviation has already consisted of security records where other modes of public transport have been profoundly proud. During 2014 and 2015, as per the previous year’s editions of yearly ICAO report of safety, various happenings at Singapore, that has been certainly or probably stemming from the intentional acts have resulted in more type of fatalities in instance of crash of the commercial aircrafts having certified maximum take-off weighs of about more than 12,500 lb, that resulted in accidents.

At the same time the rate of accidents, that has been both fatal and non-fatal in 2015 has been including the involved scheduling activities like the aircraft decreased by about 6% from 2014 (Mediratta, Ahluwalia and Yeo 2016). This included 3 to 2.5% of accidents in every million departures. At all the likelihood this has been a least yearly rate of the accident regarding commercial aviation.

The tallies of ICAO regarding industrial accidents every year in the previous four years has provided that few plateauing of the rate of disaster has been occurring. The reason is that ever since the significant decline in overall numbers of accidents from 125 in 2011 to 99 during 2012, the amount of crashes in the coming three years has been highly static (Wong and Brooks 2015). The amount is 90 in 2013, 96 in 2014, 93 in 2015. However, in 2014 and 2015, the happenings as per ICAO have been under intentional acts. Apart from this, the amount of unscheduled and scheduled flights of the aircraft that has been continuing the rise every year. Hence, the plateauing in security performance has been slightly illusory every year with higher numbers of flights. Thus they have been primarily producing the standstill in the overall amount of accidents.

Further, within the GSIP or “Global Safety Information Project” various elements of FSF have been mandating the FSF to the tasks neat to the FAA. This is to know the scenario of aviation information, the way it is gathered, exchanged and analyzed (Tan 2015).  This has been the way in which the assessment, dissemination and collecting of the security information are developed for reducing the rates of accidents for every kind of aviation. It is the primary tool in attempting the goal that is mandating with the structural demonstration as per ICAO. This is under Annex 19 as per Chicago Convention, regarding SMSs or safety management systems. This includes aviation service and product providers that have to be adopted.

Safety Risk Management

Moreover, various providers that have been adopting SMS has been United Aviation Singapore Pte Ltd, Textron Aviation Singapore, Eagle Engineering Aerospace and so on. They have been coming from a wide range of maintenance industries, aerodromes and airports, manufacturers and aircraft operators (Wong and Brooks 2015). However, there have been various kinds of organizations that undertake functions across the aircraft as that is within the ground. These have also included baggage-handler, caterers, fuellers and different additional aviation companies of ground handling.

These are demonstrated below.

Safety or hazard reporting culture:

This includes the current highly accessible hazard reporting system, process of risk management focusing on events and not individuals like Fieldtech Aviation (Singapore) Pte Ltd. This also comprises of reported safety issues managed timely with transparent r visible outcomes.

Safety awareness:

Here, most of the staffs receive hazard identification training. Further, the employees can access the specific hazards regarding data commensuration the roles in aviation such as Safran Landing Systems (Tan 2015). Here, a stable workforce among the experienced workers is seen.

Safety communication:

At Meggitt Aerospace Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, the safety communication has been regarding security of data flow between the employees and managers. Here, the data affects the safety communications coming from the determined hazards, data of hazard reporting, safety behaviour data, safety attitude data.

Safety willingness:

This is a vital part of security culture tending in the living under the influence of awareness and communication (Kiesling et al. 2016). For instance, at Singapore Airlines Cargo, the will have been motivating the employees following the documentation of security program like checklists, procedures, accepting changes to SMS and get involved in SMS. 

Again at, SilkAir, the market of useful safety willingness includes the clear reward and accountability system in place, safety performance review in performance reviews, managing different methods to promote safety and managing different ways to improve safety (Matulevi?ius et al. 2016). Here, the employee job satisfaction is higher and the management encourages the security on productivity.

Relationship between management and employee:

At Scoot, the indications of productive employee-management relationship include management as the genuine commitment to security policy (Kong 2016). Here, the non-punitive policies are understood and communicated to every employee with healthy safety reporting members that are representative of the SMS maturity level and company size.

Conclusion:

The above study has analyzed the corresponding elements and critical components of SMS within the ICAP framework and the contribution to the system are explained. The analysis also shows how safety thinking has evolved in due time that involves the development of the idea of SMS. Moreover, various kinds of safety cultures are explained coexisting in aviation and how they have been contributing to the smart performance of SMS. However, not every type of operators as highlighted in the above case studies requires a similar safety management system. The necessities have been varying depending on various factors. This includes the company’s size, aims and objectives related to SMS, the complexity of company operators. This also involves the maturity of SMS programs like at what phase they have been present. 

Safety Assurance

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