A Practical Guide To Building a

Safety Management System (SMS)

For Your Aviation Business
Introduction

Not long ago, we released an eBook called Safety Management 101 that explored the
different aspects of safety management in aviation - including Safety Management
Systems (or SMS), what’s involved in building a tailored solution for your business,
and how aviation operators can ensure they’re adhering to the necessary safety
mandates.

Our 101 guide talked about the International Civil Aviation Organisation (aka
ICAO, the globally recognised authority on aviation rules and regulations) and
the Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) that ICAO sets in order to
standardise safety across the international aviation community. We also went into a
bit of detail about ICAO’s 2019 mandate and why it’s important.

In this follow-up, we’ll lay out some practical steps you can take to build an SMS
that will meet the needs of your particular operation, increase its efficiency and
success in the process, and make you compliant with ICAO regulations. We’ve also
included expert advice from Armin Sadafi, Oceania Aviation’s Health, Safety, and
Quality Manager and a specialist in safety and compliance.

But first -

A brief recap of what exactly an SMS is and what the ICAO mandate calls for.
(Remember to download and read our 101 eBook if you haven’t already!)

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What is a SMS, and how can it benefit your
aviation operation?

According to ICAO, a SMS is a ‘systematic approach to managing safety, including

the necessary organisational structures, accountabilities, policies, and procedures.’

In other words, it’s a thoroughly comprehensive safety scheme that analyses every
corner of an operation, identifies any weak spots, and works to correct them. An
effective SMS asks that a business continually strive for an improved level of safety
rather than treating it as an afterthought (in the wake of an accident or other safety
issue) - and if you want your operation to reach its full potential, it’s a vital cog in
your machine.

In addition to a robust SMS being a literal requirement (a quick reminder here to

double-check with your regional regulatory body about the specific SMS demands
for your area), it’s also a hugely beneficial tool that you can take advantage of to
improve your operational efficiency.

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How can it improve operational efficiency,
you ask?

By prioritising safety on a daily basis and in every decision, a SMS both encourages
and ensures safe decisions on the part of your employees - which in turn builds a
company culture of safety and reduces the risk of accidents and harm. This culture
is foundational to your SMS and will determine its success or failure.

“Your SMS provides a standardised formal method of complying with the rules, as
well as a method to evaluate your organisation’s safety management capability,”
says Mr Sadafi. “It also helps control the effects of hazards that go beyond current
regulations.”

All of this then translates to a more favourable reputation in the industry, increased
success, and more streamlined operations.

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MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (SMS) FOR YOUR BUSINESS
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What’s involved in the 2019 ICAO mandate?

ICAO sees a SMS as a four-part structure, and the mandate necessitates that
your unique system adequately addresses each one. You can refer to the Safety
Management 101 eBook for a more in-depth overview of the parts - but here’s a
brief description of each component, courtesy of Mr Sadafi:

• Safety policy - Defines top management’s objectives and requirements, and

provides the structure, procedures, and controls for SMS implementation and
operational procedures.

• Safety risk management - One of the two functional processes of an SMS.

Involves identifying hazards, analysing them for risk, assessing them, and
controlling them.

• Safety assurance - The other functional process of an SMS. Involves monitoring

the controls to ensure they constantly work in mitigating safety risk.

• Safety promotion - Provides the necessary processes (communication and

training among them) to support a strong safety culture. As we mentioned
above, your organisation’s safety culture is a vital key to a successful SMS.

It’s also important to mention two integral pieces of safety risk management and
safety assurance: Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA) and Line Operations
Safety Audits (LOSA). Again, you can refer to our 101 eBook for more details - but
essentially, FOQA involves collecting measurable data from in-flight aircraft and
using it to make safety improvements, and LOSA involves preempting likely human
error to avoid negative impacts on safety.

Now that you have a basic understanding of the building blocks of a comprehensive
SMS, let’s move on to a few actionable tips that’ll help you construct the strongest
possible system for your business.

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5 practical tips for building your SMS

Here’s where advice from an expert who specialises in safety management

systems comes in particularly handy. We asked Oceania’s Mr Sadafi for his
input on practical tips for building your SMS, and here’s what he had to say:

1. Clearly define your policies and organisational structures - In order for an

SMS to function effectively, top leadership must show their unwavering
commitment to the company-wide safety objectives they’ve defined. And
speaking of those objectives: you must make absolutely sure that you plainly
and openly communicate them to every member of your team. So put them in
writing, include them in emails, discuss them at meetings - whatever you need
to do to ensure there’s no gray area around safety.

2. Provide any and all resources necessary to build and maintain your SMS -
Whatever this means for your particular operation - whether it’s reallocating
budget funds, hiring more pilots, providing an improved office environment,
etc. - ensure you’re supplying your staff with everything they need to make
safety the number-one priority. You should also regularly ask for feedback from
said staff to determine whether or not you’re meeting those resource needs.

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3. Define your acceptable and unacceptable levels of risk - Acceptable levels
of risk will vary from organisation to organisation, depending on several factors
including the specific space in which you operate (commercial, private, etc.), the
size of your fleet and your number of pilots, the conditions in which your fleet
flies, and your overall budget. Once you’ve taken those factors into account and
determined both what you’re willing to accept and what you’re not, you can
take decisive action to mitigate the latter.

4. Build your culture around safety as a core value - A robust safety culture is
part of the ‘safety promotion’ component of your SMS - and to be effective, it
must be baked into the heart of your organisation as one of your foundational
values. Helpful ways to foster this sort of safety-oriented culture? Regular
training, clear communication at company-wide meetings such as all-hands, and
shared activities in support of SMS implementation.

5. Ensure every single employee is 100% invested in your SMS - Your team is
the glue holding your SMS together, which means that every employee who’s
not completely focused on safety in every decision weakens the strength of the
system. It’s essential that you make each existing employee understand that
they’re a critical part of your organisation and that their absence would detract
from your company’s mission. You should also take a safety focus into account
when you’re making any new hires so you can be certain every member of your
team aligns with your values.

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The role of real-time tracking and flight
communications in a SMS

If a SMS’s primary goal is to elevate the overall safety levels of both individual
organisations and the industry as a whole, then it’s especially easy to see how the
real-time tracking and communication capabilities of aircraft management systems
such as Spidertracks can benefit your SMS.

Take Spidertracks’ Spidertxt for example, which provides you with secure
and reliable communication to and from your aircrafts’ cockpits, whether
you’re in a well-populated urban area or over a remote, desolate landscape.

Spidertxt allows you and your pilots to stay connected via an open line of
communication, giving them the ability to immediately alert you of any problems,
and you the ability to inform them of any flight updates or changes. This real-time
messaging capability, combined with the fact that you don’t need cell reception to
use it, adds an extra layer of safety and security to your SMS on both a tangible
hardware level (which harks back to tip #2 on resources) and a cultural level (by
furnishing your pilots and staff with peace of mind that they can always get in touch
should they need to).

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Like Spidertxt, any tool that improves or strengthens your communicative capabilities
adds immense value to your SMS — and so, too, does any tool that allows you to
have greater visibility over your aircraft, such as Spidertracks’ Virtual FDR™ (Flight
Data Recorder).

Virtual FDR™ turns your Spider into a data collector that alerts you to events and
safety hazards — data that you can subsequently analyse and use to improve your
organisation’s safety practices and protocols, which will in turn help you with tip #3
on mitigating unacceptable risk.

A quick wrap up

We hope this brief eBook has given you valuable insight into what it takes to build
a robust SMS that both renders your operation as safe as possible and meets
mandatory requirements such as those of ICAO. The tips we provided here aren’t
all-encompassing, of course, so in addition to implementing them, we encourage
you to take a bird’s-eye view of your unique business and identify solutions tailored
to your particular safety needs.

And if you’d like to learn firsthand how Spidertracks can bolster the strength of your
SMS, head here to take a demo.

A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO BUILDING A SAFETY

MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (SMS) FOR YOUR BUSINESS
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