AE Demonstrating Control Of Financial And Human Resources
Another great post from CatalinaNJB
In
an SMS world the leader of the SMS program is the Accountable Executive, or the
AE, who is playing the role as a sponsor of a specific project. A sponsor is a
person who provides funding necessary, or a percentage of a project or activity
carried out by someone else. A sponsor does not have direct inputs on the
activities in the project, but can affect management decisions by withdrawing
the sponsorship or increase their funding of both financial and human
resources. Upon the completion of the project there is no impact on the
sponsor, other than the reputation of the project, or activity that was
sponsored. It works the same way in aviation, being an airline or an airport,
as long as the
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Comprehension
of the SMS is what defines human and financial resources |
Accountable Executive can document
their role as the sponsor of the project by the control of financial and human
resources; the only repercussion to the operations is their pride and
reputation from devastating audit findings.
It is assumed that the more funding
and personnel that is assigned to a project, the more successful and safe the
project will be. This wrongful assumption is supported by a requirement that a
person, or position, is not designated as the role of the AE unless they have
control of the financial and human resources that are necessary for the
activities and operations authorized under the aviation certificate. With this
requirement, an operator may be hesitant to restrict, or reject funding or
personnel to the operations when the safety–card is applied.
There is no enforcement available
when the AE restricts, reject or withdraw funding from an SMS program. The
regulatory requirements is not directly linked to the funding itself, but to
the result, or output of the Safety Management System. If an increase in
funding from the sponsor, or AE, of an airline or airport as the only means to
safety solutions would reduce the risk level, then it would be redundant,
excessive, or even an injustice to the public to operate with a Safety Management
System.
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Safety
and SMS in aviation is not a contrast in colors, but shades of variables |
Under an SMS there is a requirement
that the AE has control of financial and human recourses. Unless the operation
is a sole proprietor or a corporation with 51% shares, there is no person who
singlehandedly has control over these financial and human resources. With a
requirement that the AE must demonstrate control of these resources, this
demonstration task becomes to demonstrate by the quality of the safety
management system itself. If the AE, as the sponsor of the program, is on a path
to success or in a downward losing spiral the resources are available tools,
but not the strategic solution to safety. The more resources that are inputted
on the controls of an airplane in a spiral do not eliminate the spiral, but is
assisting the spiral in an increasingly downward trend. For an airplane to exit
a spiral it takes leadership, management, system understanding and application
of resources to knowledge from data collected. Financial and human resources in
aviation safety, or with an SMS, are not the solutions, but variables within the
processes which are harnessed by their role within one system, for the total system
to produce the desired, or planned, outcome.
An Accountable Executive who is
defining the quality of an SMS system by human and financial resources only may
not contribute to the safe operations of an airport or aircraft, while an
Accountable Executive who is a leader within an SMS system applying strategic safety
solutions is on a path of continuous safe operations.
CatalinaNJB
