When The SMS Manager Is Silenced

When The SMS Manager Is Silenced

By OffRoadPilots

The person managing the safety management system (SMS manager) can easily be

silenced by the accountable executive (AE), who is responsible for regulatory

compliance on behalf of the certificate holder (CH). Silencing the SMS manager is

not intended to withdraw from the safety management system (SMS) itself but is

simply a business and contract decision made by an AE. An accountable executive

is not an SMS expert and may struggle with accepting work by an SMS manager,

since an SMS is intangible, SMS operations runs smooth, but financial results are not visible. 

An accountable executive is

often the chief executive

officer (CEO) of an

organization and is trained

to analyze tangible results.

An AE is result oriented, and

when an SMS does not

produce any results, or does

not have much to show for,

an AE could fall in the trap

and force the issue. Forcing

the issue is to find a tangible root cause that can be changed or replaced. SMS

might be a businesslike approach to safety, but it is not compatible with business principles, and is unable to compete with tangible business results. Without tangible results, an SMS becomes a liability to an organization, since there is only operational cost associated without any revenue to show for. An imaginary saving due to lack of accidents is not a taxable revenue yet.

When applying a businesslike approach to safety it is vital for a successful startup

and operations of the business is on the right track from the beginning. Starting up

a business takes more than cash. It takes strategic planning. Many businesses

started up with little cash but became successful by their strategies. Business

An accountable executive is a leader through the regulatory maze.strategies may be as simple as selling used items out of a garage, to a complex

strategy designing artificial intelligence.

The first question to answer when building a safety management system, is what

type of an SMS needs to be built. Before an operator starts spending money to set

up their SMS, it is essential to ensure that the SMS idea has the potential to be

successful. It is a competitive world out there, and safety needs to compete with

on time departures and arrivals, it needs to compete with snow, rain, and other

extreme weather conditions. Taking some time to research what affects safety in

operations within an operational area, will pay off in the long run.

Just as a successful business

needs to stand out from the

crowd, a successful safety

management system needs

to sand out. When an SMS is

regulated, there are

regulatory requirement any

SMS must conform to, but a

successful SMS conforms to

processes with their

customers in mind. An SMS

enterprise must define who their target customers are. Regulatory compliance is a

priority, but the regulator is not the target customer. Target customers are the

users, tenants, airport and airline personnel, air traffic services, and anyone else

who are associated with an airport or airline.

It takes money to start up a safety management system. Buildings, offices,

equipment, vehicles, computers, software, personnel, tools, and training are

essential for a successful SMS. One of the first operators to implement a regulatory

SMS, tracked the implementation cost to a million dollars. A million dollars is a

large investment for intangible results. When starting up an SMS business, it is

crucial to do the homework, research, and develop expected outcome results. An outcome result that there were no accidents today is not an SMS investment, or

business investment result. The value, or money earned, by lack of accidents is not

a taxable income yet.

To find a profitable niche, an

SMS enterprise needs do

some initial market research

to identify their target

customers and understand

their needs and desires.

Airports and airlines should

also get familiar with the

competition and pinpoint

market gaps they can fill.

Traditionally airlines are operating out of larger and international airports. This

does not change with a safety management system. However, an airport with

fewer or no scheduled air operations, could tailor their SMS to business jets and

private charters. The future is in smaller aircraft charter where the cost of travel is

competitive to the cost of purchasing an airline ticket. Travelling on private jet

charters normally takes a person closer to their destinations, since they are

operating out of low-movement airports located in relatively remote areas. Airport

with a successful SMS has fixed base operators (FBO) on their field, that has been

granted the right by the airport authority to operate on the airport and provide

aviation services, such as fuel, parking, and hangar space, to non-scheduled air

charters, and to the aviation community. The future in aviation and success of the

safety management system is in the hands of airport authorities to accommodate

for the increased private jet charters.

An airport goal is to find the right service market fit, which is the sweet spot where

airports are attracting customers and turning them into loyal customers and

advocates for the airport. During the preplanning startup stage of a safety

management system is also the time to research investors and answer any

objections they will have. Investors need to see that their investment will produce

an acceptable return on investment. Investors are expecting to receive cash

dividends, which an SMS does not generate in a traditional way. Company share

holders and investors may rightfully request financial statements showing that

their safety management system is a profit generator.

A silenced SMS manger may be discouraged to conduct system analyses, risk

analyses and other process control tasks in fear of making decisions which are

opposing to business expectations. An SMS manager may find it more productive

to accept reasonable demands that are in non-compliance with SMS principles, as

opposed to maintain a healthy SMS. When there is no profit to show for, the SMS

manager becomes an easy target to silence. When an SMS manager is silenced, an

SMS non-conforming to SMS principles will deteriorate over time. A deteriorating

SMS happens over a longer time period, over several years and goes undetected

for those who do not fully comprehend a safety management system.

The accountable executive is the person who is responsible for operations or

activities authorized under the certificate and accountable on behalf of the

certificate holder for meeting the requirements of the regulations. Maintaining

regulatory compliance is the priority for both airlines and airports since a non-

compliant operation is jeopardizing the validity of their operating certificate.

Without maintain a certificate in good standing, their operations may cease to

exist. Several airline operators, small and large, have in the past temporary lost

their operating certificate, while others lost it for the foreseeable future.

Maintaining regulatory compliance is an expense which in itself does not generate

a revenue. For airports and airlines to generate SMS revenue they need to

establish what their SMS services and SMS products are. After this is established,

then they may itemize items and set their sales price. Establishing SMS services

and products is a mindboggling project, since everything need to be safe, and it is

emotionally difficult to apply different price to safety items, and to establish

different levels of safety.When an SMS viewed as a wheel with spokes it becomes manageable to assign lines of expenses and income. 

When viewing an SMS as a wheel, there are no levels of safety, but there are lines of safety, where each line, or spoke, are equally

important contributors to a profitable SMS. Prior to the regulated SMS, there were

no hub, other than the CEO, that profit and loss could be contributed to. With the

implementation of the safety management system, the SMS becomes the hub

where operational expenses and incomes are allocated to. With an SMS, every

areas of operations are contributed to the SMS hub. With this approach it

becomes a simpler task to determine how, or if, their SMS is a profit generator.

When the blueprint for an

SMS operation has been

designed, an operator takes

on the goalsetting task and

establish objectives for how

to reach their SMS goals.

Create a vision for the

airport or airline for the

long-term future. The

clearer the vision is, the

faster an SMS enterprise

move toward their goals,

and the faster these goals move towards the SMS. It is crucial for success that these goals and objectives are written in the SMS safety policy. When a clear

mental picture of where an organization wants to go, the people in the

organization become more positive, more motivated, and more determined to

make it a reality. A natural creativity is triggered, and everyone come up with idea

after idea to help make the vision come true.

When setting goals, decide exactly what the organization want in each area of

operations and include financial goals. Most people do this as wishes, but never do

this clearly in a goalsetting environment. Write down each goals clearly and

specifically. Something amazing happens between the mind and a hand when goals are made in writing. Set a deadline for each goal. Set sub-deadlines if a goal is big

enough. Give a target to aim at. Make a list of everything you can think of that

needs to be done to achieve each goal. As new ideas come up, add them to the list

until it is complete. Organize the list into a plan of action. Determine what needs to

be done first and what can wait until later. Decide what is more important and

what is less important. Act on the plan immediately. It is amazing how many

splendid goals and plans are never realized because of procrastination and delay.

Last, or perhaps most important, do something every day to move at least one

step closer to the most important goal. A commitment to daily action moves an

SMS enterprise closer to a successful goal.

With goals and avenues to funnel these goals, an SMS manager can promote the

safety management system and allocate operational revenues to every avenue

leading to the SMS hub. An SMS manager who is not silenced has unlimited

opportunities to turn an SMS around to a profit generator.

OffRoadPilots

OffRoadPilots