SMS Performance Evaluation
By OffRoadPilots
Every operator with a safety management system (SMS) conducts regular SMS performance assessments of their systems. In a healthy performance environment, assessments are conducted daily within a quality control system. As a businesslike approach to safety, an SMS enterprise has an obligation to learn how their systems are performing, in the same manner as a business assess their cashflow daily. In a business the cashflow is the leftover after cash is received and cash paid. If a business's cash acquired exceeds its cash spent, it has a positive cash flow. A positive cash flow means more cash is coming in than going out, which is essential for a business to sustain long-term growth. This same principle goes for a healthy and sustainable long-term growth of a safety management system.
Conventional wisdom is that a healthy safety management system for airports or airlines, is a system without incidents, or a system with reduction of incidents over time. The question to answer with this approach is what is the next approach, or goal after the zero incidents goal is achieved. A goal must be attainable to be a valid goal, and an attainable goal is a goal with a proven tracking record. A zero incidents goal does not come with a proven tracking record. A major global air carrier states that they are committed to the highest standard of safety, and they expect the same standard of all their suppliers. Since there are no industry standards for the aviation industry of what the highest standard is, an airline or airport has an obligation to develop their own proprietary testing methods and stringent internal guidelines above and beyond regulatory requirements to ensure their services are held to the highest standard in safety.
Without a definition, or expectations of what the highest standard is, the standard could be anything an opinion desire and contracts terminated for any suppliers who are unable to comply with these opinions. When applying this approach, a safety management system may conform to regulatory compliance, but a contract agreement may be terminated if unable to comply with expectations. This was also the first approach taken by the regulator to make findings against expectations with the justification that an expectation was linked to a regulatory requirement.
When the safety management system was first implemented, a list of six components, seventeen elements and about 95 expectations were developed to assist operators to design processes that conformed to regulatory requirements. All elements of the SMS were linked to at least one regulation and divided into the following 17 elements.
Elements:
a safety policy,
non-punitive reporting policy,
roles and responsibilities & employee involvement,
communication,
safety planning,
performance measurement,
management review,
identification and maintenance of applicable regulations,
SMS documentation,
records management,
reactive processes,
proactive processes,
investigation and analysis,
risk management,
training, awareness & competence,
quality assurance, and
emergency preparedness & response.
Within these 17 elements are about 95 expectations as guidance tools to maintain a successful SMS. Depending on size and complexity, a total of 154 expectations were later designed for airport operators to maintain a sustainable and long-term growth SMS.
Expectations, policies and goals are non-action items, but are tools available in the toolbox for airport or airline operators to run a successful SMS. Without placing expectations as the first item of tools available for purchase, policies, goals, objectives and processes becomes unattainable. Since running an SMS is a businesslike approach to safety, expectations become units available for purchase (example: an expectation unit available is the purchase of a safety policy). Expectation purchased is the cost of the unit (example: the cost of a safety policy is to design and built goals). Developing, maintaining, maintenance and quality control of expectations purchased are the cost of associated actions (example: the cost of a goal is strategic planning of objectives to reach the goal). Conversion of objectives into processes is the value, or return on investment by an operator (example: the conversion of a goal to operate with a bare and dry runway during winterseasons is the value of an objective). Conversion of an objective into processes are goods and services provided to customers (example: a process to maintain a bare and dry runway is to design the 5-Ws + How; What, When, Where, Why, Who and How). As an advertising and marketing tool, processes are converted into procedures and acceptable work practices for targeting leads (example: Assign roles and responsibilities, and action items to operational personnel). When applying a businesslike approach to the SMS and working with a group of leads, the safety management system becomes a blueprint to design and develop sales presentations to convert leads into buyers.
A reduction in incidents or accidents is not a performance improvement or measurement of a safety management system since the outcome of an occurrence cannot be changed. That the number of operational incidents were decreasing annually is only a report stating that there was fewer incident during the last 12- month period than the previous period. Interpreting this information is not an interpretation of an SMS performance but is merely an emotional assessment of events.
The challenge when operating with a safety management system is to convert abstract information into tangible facts, or expectations into cash value. The only known performance measurement tool to measure businesses performance is to measure in cash value. The goal for a business is that there is more incoming cash than money going out, with an objective to operate with processes to make this goal attainable.
An SMS enterprise is obligated to perform SMS performance evaluation daily of their safety policy, their goalsetting process and attainment of these goals, a hazard identification process and evaluation of associated hazard, their process for training of personnel and evaluation of their competency, their internal reporting process, their hazard analysis process, their corrective action plan process, their SMS manual and communication processes to all personnel, including the accountable executive, a process for making personnel and associated contractors aware of their roles and responsibilities, a quality assurance program, an audit program of their safety management system with defined schedules, and any additional requirements for the safety management system that are prescribed under the regulations. One reason for daily observation of performance evaluations is to detect drift, or non-conforming process at an early stage.
When an SMS enterprise has established this platform they have established their foundation to convert SMS performance into cash-performance. More money spent on safety does not necessarily equate to a safer operational environment. It is how cash is allocated and distributed that makes the difference. The first step when evaluating their SMS performance is to operate with a daily quality control system. This system is the cash-register of a safety management system. Items sold and items purchased are registered in this system and assigned to an account with a regulatory requirement.
An SMS enterprise assessing their SMS system within a cashflow system, the complete purchase and cost of the entire SMS system is the annual cost of the SMS manager. The assumption is that the blueprints are completed, SMS designed and built to its completion. Incoming cash, such as landing fees, ticket purchases or freight revenue, can then be allocated to the SMS system and distributed to one of the expectation accounts. Over time a cashflow statement will generate an income or loss cashflow statement allocated to an expectation account. Operating with an SMS businesslike approach is no different than operating a general store where cashflow is allocated to separate accounts.
Establishing an SMS accounting system is the key to a successful SMS and opens the doors to evaluate SMS performance cashflow in SPC control chart environment. SPC control charts is a tool to make changes as needed to out of control processes, to make changes to the average in processes that are in control, or to allocate or remove expectations to the vital few processes that require attention.
OffRoadPilots
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