Safety Management System (SMS)

What is a Safety Management System?

Safety Management System (SMS) is a collection of structured, company-wide processes that provide effective risk-based decision-making for daily business functions. Safety Management Systems help organizations offer products or services at the highest level of safety and maintain safe operations.

Source:https://safetyculture.com/

Purpose of Safety Management Systems:

The main purpose of a safety management system is to provide a systematic approach to managing safety risks in operations. SMS also aims to improve safety by building on existing processes, demonstrating corporate due diligence, and reinforcing the overall safety culture. Effective safety management is crucial in continuing to operate and grow the business, especially in high-risk industries such as aviation, energy, maritime, and construction.

The 4 Components and 12 Elements of a Safety Management System:

SMS has four components in its framework which are often referred to as the Four Pillars of Safety Management System. The 4 safety management system components are as follows:

• Safety Policy and Objectives
• Safety Risk Management
• Safety Assurance
• Safety Promotion

Each SMS component contains elements that describe specific needs for the successful implementation and maintenance of a safety management system. Originated from ICAO, the 12 safety management system elements are:

• Management Commitment
• Safety Accountability and Responsibilities
• Appointment of Key Safety Personnel
• Coordination of Emergency Response Planning
• SMS Documentation
• Hazard Identification
• Safety Risk Assessment and Mitigation
• Safety Performance Monitoring and Measurement
• Management of Change
• Continuous Improvement of the SMS
• Training and Education
• Safety Communication

The components and elements of a safety management system can be best understood together as illustrated in this image:

Safety Management System Framework: 4 Components and 12 Elements by ICAO

1. Safety Policy and Objectives

Employers should make safety an integral part of company values, demonstrating their commitment daily. Specifically, top management needs to set safety goals as policy, while being visible and personally involved in meeting them. Safety accountability and responsibilities should be clearly defined such as the role of the leadership team to manage safety in the same way that they oversee other areas of the business and the duty of technical managers to assure the effectiveness of safety risk controls.

Once appointed safety personnel have been identified, documentation processes should also be determined because the safety management system will be reviewed periodically to ensure it remains relevant and appropriate to the organization. As the FAA Safety Team (FAASTeam) shared, SMS documentation may be a stand-alone manual or integrated into existing record-keeping procedures.

2. Safety Risk Management

In order to effectively control safety risks, designated staff should perform a series of interconnected processes collectively called Safety Risk Management (SRM). It generally focuses on anticipating and mitigating risks at the process level. Listed below are the 5 steps that go into the safety risk management component of SMS:

1. System Description and Task Analysis: As a system design function, system description, and task analysis are used by a cross-functional team within the organization to state the facts about the activities and workplace conditions (equipment, environment, etc.) involved in their processes. Systems factors and attributes should also be considered such as procedures, process measures, and interfaces, among others.
2. Hazard Identification: Hazards are identified as deficient conditions impacting activities that can result in injury, illness, or death to people and/or system, equipment, or property damages or losses. It is important to note that a hazard is any real or potential condition, including typical hazardous conditions related to human error such as time pressure, shift turnovers, and lack of system knowledge.
3. Risk Analysis: Risks are derived from hazards based on the judgment of key safety personnel. Analyzing risk involves considering the likelihood and severity of adverse consequences. Since a single hazard can have multiple consequences, increased exposure to hazards can also make it more likely for grave consequences to recur. On the other hand, severity is mainly driven by the nature of the consequence itself.
4. Risk Assessment: To assist with decision-making, perform a risk assessment and establish whether a safety risk is acceptable or not. A risk matrix is used as a tool for evaluating the combined effects of likelihood and severity, prioritizing which safety risks to address in what sequence for adequate resource allocation. If deemed acceptable, the SRM component of SMS is complete and the risk moves to the next component for monitoring. Otherwise, risk controls should be put in place to mitigate or reduce the risk.
5. Risk Control: The safety management system element of risk control, also known as risk mitigation, enables the implementation of safety measures to safeguard people, property, or the environment. While the severity of risks may be lessened to a certain degree, decreasing their probability or likelihood is what happens in most situations. Risk controls applied to working conditions can be effective instruments for risk reduction and failure prevention.

3. Safety Assurance

Safety Assurance (SA) is the component of a safety management system that deals with the monitoring of risk controls during operations. After strategically placing control measures, their performance and effectiveness should be assessed as well. Common SA functions include internal audits, investigations, and employee reporting systems. Particularly in aviation, operational data sources such as flight dispatch records, crew schedules, and aircraft discrepancy reports prove to be useful for the continuous monitoring of safety risk controls.

Upon gathering all necessary information, they should be analyzed against set objectives and compared with existing norms for patterns from multiple data points and trends over time. Oftentimes, safety risk controls fail due to a lack of leadership, resources, and instruction. In whichever case, preventive and corrective actions should be taken may it be increased supervision, equipment maintenance, remedial training, etc. Management review also plays a vital role in Safety Assurance, most especially, in the continuous improvement of the SMS.

4. Safety Promotion

Interchangeably used with Safety Culture, Safety Promotion is defined as the activities that support the SMS implementation in an organization such as training, knowledge-sharing, and communication. To promote safety as a company core value, employees should understand the safety management system, learn from shared experience, and develop an awareness of hazards. Management should also be able to explain why particular actions are taken in order to consistently foster an environment for open reporting of safety concerns.

Source:https://safetyculture.com/

Conclusion:

Safety Management Systems (SMS) are vital for organizations to ensure safety in their operations and to manage risk effectively. By implementing a structured set of processes and procedures, SMS allows companies to make risk-based decisions, enhance safety performance, and maintain safe operations throughout their daily business functions.