Safety Management Toolbox Continued from page 79 The identification and management of hazards affecting the integrity of your operation is a fundamental objective of all flight departments, FBOs, MROs and organizations working within a risk-based environment. As organizations have transitioned to a systems-based safety program, such as a Safety Management System (SMS), they have come to the realization that relying on mere prescriptive regulatory standards and compliance was shortsighted. Within the system that is SMS—Safety Policy, Safety Risk Management, Safety Assurance and Safety Promotion, organizations are now equipped with a documented set of due diligence tools and processes that emphasize hazard identification, active reporting and analysis, risk control and mitigation before potential negative events occur. Regulations are the lowest common denominator to as- sure regulatory compliance to standards designed to pro- vide basic operational stability and attention to some of the most fundamental risks within aviation. While regulatory standards do portend to address some risk within the avia- tion industry, there are too many moving parts, variables, changes and behaviors to warrant a one-size-fits-all solution for managing risk and assuring safety. Additionally, en- hancements to regulations often move at a snail’s pace when compared to the dynamic environment that is aviation. Yes, most operators have the basics down, such as: a comprehensive safety policy which is actually signed and dated by the Chief Executive; a functioning safety committee that meets routinely with a defined agenda, including action items and recorded minutes to track progress; some form of proactive hazard ID and event reporting, with analysis and a means to report back out and up; and various internal and external forms of safety promotion. However, many fall short on the ap- plication of Safety Assurance (SA) and Management of Change (MoC), a subset of Safety Risk Management. As previously stated, regulations by default are generally viewed as prescriptive by design, providing an opportu- nity for most operators to easily demonstrate compliance. Like checklists, which we expect every pilot or mechanic to follow, organizational cultures, individual biases and learned behaviors are manipulated by personnel who adapt to latent conditions found within the operating environ- ment. This occurs usually when supervision is scarce or overwhelmed by numerous tasks and distractions. On any given day in a typical organization, management ‘believes’ they are compliant to regulatory requirements because it was addressed previously, but are unaware of or lack the understanding to ask the questions, “What about today? What about tomorrow? What has changed?” What we know for a fact is that without active man- agement and routine internal oversight and surveillance, standards and work practices begin to “drift” away from classroom training and documented standards/Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), becoming more like “This is the way we do it around here.” Or until an accident or injury occurs to tip off management! Without ac- tive safety assurance, management is flying blindly. Looking at ICAO’s definition of Safety Assurance1 (SA), and focusing on some key words, SA includes the following activities: Safety Performance Monitoring and Measurement. Aircraft operators/service provid- ers shall develop and maintain the means to verify that the safety performance of the organization complies with the safety policy and objectives, and to validate the effectiveness of safety risk management. This is 1 ICAO Safety Management Manual (SMM) Doc 9859 Continued on page 83 Aviation Business Journal | 3rd Quarter 2016 81
