Project Management

Project Management

By CatalinaNJB

Safety Management System (SMS) in aviation does not make good business sense in its current concept of abstract ideas, plans and intentions but without facts and tangible results. The cost for regional airlines to implement a regulatory required SMS were almost unbearable. SMS had promised the airline industry that there would be a reduction in accidents, because SMS would solve all problems. However, SMS did not deliver what was promised when an airline had a fatal accident some years later. SMS was and illusion and many fell in the trap believing that intentions will make a difference. It did not, and it does not make good business to run a business based on intentions. Imagine if major suppliers demanded cash return because of their intentions to sell services or products. Intentions in business don’t hold water. SMS was sold to the aviation industry as an intention to reduce accidents. The intent was perfect, but accidents are still happening.

A paper airplane has no other direction but down.

The concept of SMS was sold to operators as a tool to help companies identify safety risks before they become bigger problems. In countries were SMS became a regulatory requirement, the aviation industry was required to put a safety management system in place as an extra layer of protection to help save lives. The intent is good, but it is still not possible to apply data to accidents that did not happen or future accidents that may not happen. In addition, when SMS became a regulatory requirement the first priority for any operator became to maintain regulatory compliance. The SMS requirement changed safety from being always first priority to become paramount. This change may have been unintended, but it became a vital change in how safety in aviation is managed. When safety is paramount an enterprise has established the foundation and base for their SMS Project Management and Quality Leadership.

Project Management and Quality Leadership make good business sense. There are several variables, both common and special cause variables, but a common denominator for a successful business is management and leadership. There are not many businesses that maintained success and good business sense by ignoring management and leadership even if their business first became a success by fluke, random or chance of unidentified needs.

SMS is a businesslike approach of Project Planning and Quality Leadership.

NextGen of SMS, or the new way of approaching SMS makes good business sense and should be embraced by a successful aviation industry. A Safety Management System without a Project Management and Quality Leadership is a system without directions and a system without directions goes nowhere, or if it goes somewhere, nobody knows where it is taking you. Every expectation within a Safety Management System needs a project plan for an enterprise to maintain regulatory compliance. There is an expectation that a Safety Policy is in place. So, what good does it do to make a safety policy? It makes us feel good with several statements of good and safe intents. But this is where it ends. Unless there is a project plan in place how to utilize this safety policy, it’s not worth much to safety. An effective project plan is supported by goals, and more important, how to achieve these goals.

When the regulator conducts Program Validation Inspections (PVI) or SMS Assessments, they read the Safety Policy, and all looks good. After they have read the safety policy and feel good about the Enterprise’s intent, they come onsite to find out what the safety policy does for safety. Without a safety policy project plan the Enterprise is not prepared to show, or demonstrate, how the intent of the safety policy functions. The SMS plan was perfect, but the Enterprise had not allowed for the policy any opportunity to raise to the occasion and bolster its potential.

For a Safety Management System to be effective, the SMS should be run as a businesslike approach to safety where the ROI is the change in cost of safety improvements. The NextGen of a Safety Management System is Leadership Qualities and Project Management.

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CatalinaNJB

SMS Environmentally Friendly

SMS Environmentally Friendly

By CatalinaNJB

SMS is the new business model to ensure quality assurance of all processes within an enterprise. SMS is not restricted to safety process only, but also to financial processes, operational processes, regulatory compliance and environmental processes. Environmental processes are more than the environment itself and how excessive weather changes have directly and daily impact on operations. SMS is Quality Leadership of processes within an Enterprise’s environment system in the SHELL (Software – Hardware – Liveware – Liveware) operational model and how human factors are affecting job performance. Human factors is the single overarching factor determining success or failure of a business. SMS as a Quality Leadership tool is applied to continuous process improvements. When regulations are amended an effective SMS is applied to implement new processes and monitor, not only the effectiveness of the processes, but also the effectiveness, or ineffectiveness of the new regulations. SMS is a fabulous Quality Leadership tool.  

SMS is growing other directions than safety management.

One new proposed aeronautical regulation is a regulation working to achieve carbon neutral growth for international aviation from 2020 onwards. This is a t is a market-based measure requiring air operators, both commercial and private, to purchase eligible emission units on the open market to offset a portion of their emissions. Forecast advances in aircraft technology, operational improvements and a greater use of sustainable aviation fuels will not be enough to ensure carbon neutral growth from 2020 onwards. Since airlines fly internationally every day, having common international rules that ensure all airlines receive equal treatment is important.

A new proposed regulatory amendment with a requirement for airplane operators offering international flights with more than 10 000 tons of total annual carbon dioxide emissions is coming down the pike. Airplane operators will be required to develop and submit an Emissions Monitoring Plan to the Regulator in order to set out the operator’s specific approach to monitoring. 

Airplane operators will be required to monitor and record fuel use according to the eligible monitoring method chosen in their Emissions Monitoring Plan and approved by the Regulator, on an annual basis. Enterprises will also be required to develop and submit an Emissions Report for the previous year on an annual basis. Verification is a third requirement. Verification is also Quality Assurance. Operators will be required to engage an accredited third-party verification body for the verification of the annual Emissions Report. The verification body would ensure completeness and accuracy of information in the report. The operators will then be required to submit a copy of the Verification Report to the regulator and authorize the verification body to also submit copies of the Emissions Report and Verification Report to the regulator. A robust system is required to ensure compliance with these complex monitoring and reporting requirements and your existing SMS is in the toolbox already. 

Unlimited SMS opportunities are just raising above the horizon.

When the time comes, air operators must be compliant with the emission regulations. Four of the components of an SMS are the Safety Management Plan, Document Management, Safety Oversight and Training. These components may be called pillars and Safety Policy, Safety Risk Management, Safety Assurance and Safety Promotion. What the SMS is named is irrelevant. What is relevant is that with an effective SMS in place the air operators have in place effective tools to establish an emission policy, reporting oversight, safety risk management, quality assurance and training of all personnel involved. The regulation is applicable to airplane operators but is also a tool for airport operators to monitor and review their own airfield emission reports. Derived from these reports, airports may voluntarily propose airside operations policies in establishing a carbon dioxide emissions baseline for continuous improvements. 

CatalinaNJB

SMS Takes the Pressure Off Your Busy Schedule

SMS Takes the Pressure Off Your Busy Schedule

Post by CatalinaNJB

After several years of SMS, the time is now for airlines and airports to embrace SMS and for SMS to be managed by experts in the field. There are many who will take on the title as SMS Manager, or Director of Safety, but there are few who are qualified. With a high demand for qualified personnel, it is busy task find someone with world class experience. 

SMS has become an extremely specialized field and there are only a handful of experts who comprehend SMS strategies and solutions of both the operational side and the regulatory side, in addition having the skills to implement a practical solution of regulatory processes. There was no one who had expected the SMS 10 – 15 years ago to take this path. Back then, SMS was sold as a data entry tool only where technical expertise knowledge no longer would be required. However, SMS is on a different level than any other QA Programs in that it must assess human factors, human performance and job performance as it relates to safety critical areas and safety critical functions. The quality and performance of a tangible product can easily be assessed, while the intangible forces applied to SMS requires other assessment tools. Some of these tools are comprehensive risk level assessment tool, a PDCA tool, a SHELL model assessment tool and SPC tools. In addition, a tailored SMS expectations references handbook is needed for the SMS processes to effectively comply with regulatory requirements and practical applications. 

As more and more airports and airlines are finding themselves wrapped up in regulatory findings, in addition to failing their own audits, this is the time to ensure a regulatory compliant SMS. Over a few years there are examples of the regulator placing operators under enhanced monitoring, taking certificate actions and issuing SMS findings that affects the bottom line. 

The beauty of SMS is in its reflections

Have you ever stopped for a minute and reflected over why the Global Aviation Industry, being Airlines or Airports, needs a Safety Management System (SMS) today, when they were safe yesterday without an SMS? Can you imagine if you knew 10 years ago, what you know now? What mistakes would you have avoided? What opportunities would you have capitalized on? 

An enterprise needs an SMS to take the pressure off their Accountable Executive busy schedule. In the old days of safety, all safety tasks were placed on one person to remember, to action and the implementation of CAPs. Most of these tasks became fire-fighter tasks to put the fires out whenever there was an incident or hazard reported. Very few enjoyed this responsibility and it also interrupted the businesses to an extensive degree. However, for decades this was the one and only acceptable approach and there were no changes in how safety was managed, except for changes in how to put the fires out.  The NextGen of aviation safety, SMS is the change that took place some years ago.

While they were not called Accountable Executives in the old days, they were the Directors, CEOs, CAOs, Presidents, Managers, or Business Owners who had accepted the responsivity to ensure the safe operations of their enterprise. After an incident or major accident, their busy schedules were interrupted by visits from the regulator for compliance inspections. As they had to explain these embarrassing incidents to both the regulator and the public, which in hindsight became even more of an embarrassment to the company, they wasted valuable time away from leading the enterprise forward in a positive light and safety in operations. While all this was happening, there were financial loses draining the cashflow and company equity. The enterprise had now become unstable and management had grave concerns about their future. 

Today, any enterprise required to implement SMS 10-12 years ago are still follow their old path and putting out fires more than changing the root causes. Some operators did not make the right decision at the fork in the road by embracing the Safety Management System. They continued safety in operations without applying their own SMS principles. If they had known back then what they know today, they would have avoided mistakes and created opportunities they could have capitalized on. They would have celebrated their wins, recognized people who have created results, generated a network of specialists and learned new strategies from one of the best in the world while operating an amazing enterprise.

When you find the purpose road you will embrace SMS.

The purpose of SMS, and why is it needed today, is to take the pressure off your busy schedule. SMS is in concept very simple, but more complex and specialized in operations than an enterprise’s computer network, flight crew scheduling, airport operations or their regulatory compliant accounting system. SMS has since the beginning been assigned to unqualified people, since there were very few qualified. Junior employees proudly took on the title as SMS Manager, but very few comprehended what it entailed. Today there are experts available to take on any SMS system and proudly move it forward in a way that literary takes the pressure off your busy schedule. A CEO, President or Director of any organization does not daily worry about their computer system or accounting system during normal operations. They receive reports, review facts and move forward in their busy schedule. SMS is no different than other support systems in an organization, except that it was often assigned to unqualified personnel who did not comprehend how to move it forward. 

By embracing SMS and assigning SMS to experts it becomes a businesslike approach to safety. When SMS is a businesslike approach, the Accountable Executive does not require a fire extinguisher for daily operations, since world class experts and specialists take care of SMS. This is not a fantasy world, but facts and the real world where world class experts keep an enterprise regulatory complaint and maintains safety in operations processes. Now, the pressure is off your busy schedule. 

CatalinaNJB

The Path of SMS

The Path of SMS

Post by CatalinaNJB

Vision yourself in a restaurant, with family, friends or someone special. It’s a wonderful atmosphere, theplace is spectacular, friendly personnel and everything is a million times better than expected. You arewaiting for the meal to be served when you hear the rattling noise of falling trash cans. The next thingyou know your meal is served on a bacteria infected lid of a trash can. Your meal is also served with anote stating that you must consume this meal to avoid a restaurant departure fee. You feel alone and trapped without a place to go.

This is how SMS was introduced to the aviation industry 10-12

First Impression of SMS.

years ago. It is a wonderful safety tool and the best thing thatever happened to safety, but it was served on top of the lid of atrash can. Nobody wanted to touch it or learn more about it. If that wasn’t enough, airlines and airports were trapped within their own four walls to accept regulatory designed expectations.There were no doors through the walls or a way out of the
expectation trap.

I was introduced to the Safety Management System (SMS) at a young age and before SMS became industry standard after I had witnessed a towing airplane and a glider crashed. The pilot of the glider airplane pulled the air-brakes at about 300 FT, the towing airplane stalled, and both crashed in the lake.This event triggered my understanding and comprehension of a safety management system where human factors, supervision factors, organizational factors and environmental factors systems are fundamental when conducting root cause analysis and corrective action plans for continuous system improvements. I studied SMS and became an expert in SMS by asking questions and learn from the best. 

I studied Transport Canada Staff Instruction, SI SUR-001 and found answers to 79 fundamental question of what an SMS is, where in the operational system an SMS fits in, when, as it relates to time and location, the SMS is applicable, who the SMS is applicable to, why it must be regulatory implemented to become effective, unless there is accountability and a commitment to a voluntary standard and how to apply SMS as a profit generating tool. I studies SMS until I could master SMS in the four circles of comprehension. 

I learned that collecting data is crucial to a successful SMS. Data is the first circle of comprehension, leading to the second circle of comprehension which is information, which creates an opportunity to derive a third circle of knowledge, after which the doors opens to the comprehension level of one autonomous system or interaction of several systems. These circles could become disproportionately imbalanced, in that there is either a lack of balance of inputs and outputs in one or more of the circles, or there is not enough space available within one circle itself to absorb the inflow of data, information or knowledge. When there is an overflow imbalance, SMS becomes overwhelming and unbearable.  

An effective SMS policy is based on a vision.

When SMS was first introduced it became an overflow of data and information to the point where it became unbearable.  At that time there were very few and no local experts or strategy solutions specialist available who comprehended the Safety Management System. The path moved forward without a vision of where it was going. Without a definite vision this lead to organizations continuing on an obscured trail leading to the end of a cliff. Travelling on this path did not and does not imply that an enterprise became unsafe in operations, but it implies that it was the simpler decision to make when they arrived at the fork in the road. The path chosen caused enterprises to revert to pre-SMS processes, disregarding defined regulatory expectations and moving in a direction of regulatory non-compliance. 

SMS is a fabulous tool. However, the missed opportunity when SMS was first introduced and in developing a profitable Safety Management System was for operators to define why the Global Aviation Industry, being Airlines or Airports, needs a Safety Management System (SMS) today, when they were safe yesterday without an SMS. 

CatalinaNJB