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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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. 

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