AERO2495: Safety Management in Aviation Organizations Report

This report provides a comprehensive overview of Safety Management Systems (SMS) within the aviation industry, addressing key aspects such as the definition of SMS, its critical components according to the ICAO framework, and its overall importance. The report delves into the evolution of SMS over time, highlighting the advancements in technology and the increasing focus on human factors. It also explores different types of safety cultures that contribute to the effectiveness of SMS, emphasizing the significance of commitment and communication. The report discusses the safety policies, risk management, safety assurance, and safety promotion, which are vital for maintaining a robust SMS. Moreover, it underscores the need for continuous improvement and data analysis to enhance safety measures. By examining the evolution and different facets of SMS, the report provides a clear understanding of how aviation organizations can proactively manage risks and ensure the safety of both passengers and employees. The report also examines the need for SMS, case studies, and examples to highlight the need for safety measures.

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Table of Contents
Definition of Safety Management System.................................................................................2
Critical Components of SMS according to ICAO Framework..................................................3
Importance of Safety Management System...............................................................................5
Evolution of SMS over time......................................................................................................7
Different types of Safety Culture in SMS..................................................................................8
References................................................................................................................................10

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Definition of Safety Management System
The organizations of this generation should look into the safety factor along with the
advancements of digital revolution in order to ensure the safety of the employees as well as
the customers. To ensure about the safety of the employees the organizations will have to
take safety measures about the workplace and the machineries used by the employees in the
workplace to carry out the regular operations (Stolzer 2017). Again, the companies should
generate safety regulations about the products produced by them in order to ensure about the
safety of the customers while using the particular product. Hence, the organizations should
implement the Safety Management System that will thoroughly determine the safety
procedures and related tasks within an organization.
Thus, while defining a safety management system it can be said that a systematic and
methodical approach is maintained during the daily operational activities of an organization
in order to achieve the safety that is tolerable as well as acceptable (Naeem 2018). The
primary objective of a safety management system is to identify the potential risks in advance
that is associated with the activities of the organization and prepare the significant safety
measures with respect to those activities such that the procedural tasks are carried out without
any hindrance (Robertson, Romero and Goetz 2018). The safety management system also
effectively takes into account the specific structures of the organization and undertakes the
processes related to the operational safety.
An effective safety management system should include all the necessary structures of
the organization along with the accountabilities, safety standard policies and the associated
procedures to achieve an accurate level of safety in the organization. To implement a safety
management system in an organization, the first step is to set up the safety policies and
standards with respect to the operational activities of the organization (Short, Njoya and

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Hubbard 2019, September). Once these standards are set, the operations are assessed to
recognize the risks associated with it and thereby safety measures are prepared to mitigate the
risks when required. Thus, by implementing safety assurance and control measures, the
qualities of services are effectively improved within the organization. Comprehensively, it
can be said that safety management systems are implemented to mitigate the risks and ensure
safety measures in advance for the organizations.
Safety Management Systems are incorporated by the organizations of the aviation
industry in order to ensure safety about the manufacturing and the execution of the airplanes
until their landing in the airports. Various organizations that provide aviation services such as
aircraft operators, aircraft maintenance companies, airport operators and many more have
implemented these safety management systems in their work sphere in order to ensure high
quality of robust services to the clients and retain customer satisfaction (Robertson, Harrison
and Ruiz 2018). The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) amalgamated several
annexes and standard policies for these aircraft service-providing organizations for
implementing safety measures.
Critical Components of SMS according to ICAO Framework
According to the ICAO framework, the safety policies and standards that need to be
followed by the aviation organizations are documented in the ICAO Document 9859
(Batuwangala, Silva and Wild 2018). All the organizations that provide services based on
airlines follow the guidelines set by the ICAO framework. These guidelines or standards of
the ICAO framework comprises of four components that helps the aviation-based
organizations to manage safety in the execution of their operations and avoid unnecessary
risks in any kind of situations.
Safety Policy

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Safety policies are the first component of the Safety Management System to ensure
safety in the airline organizations. These policies are a set of standards rules and regulations
that defines safety in the operations carried out in the airline industry. The senior managerial
bodies determine these policies by assessing the methods and the processes that are carried
out in the aviation organizations and continuously improve them to implement safety
measures at each step. The safety objectives that are mentioned in the policies help the airline
employees meet up to the safety expectations and commit to them through their
responsibilities in their job profile (Williams 2019). The policies also enhances transparency
in the safety management system by allowing cross-departmental communication in the
organizations.
Safety Risk Management
There can be various risks in the operations of the aviation organizations like system
failures, dispute in the engineering components, inadequate knowledge of the labours to
handle technical issues and many more. The SRM component of the ICAO framework
focuses on the issues that can occur and arranges for the risk control measures based on the
level of risk that is acceptable (Jung et al. 2018). In the formal procedure of the SMS, the
hazards are identified in the system and risks are assessed along with it. After this, the risk
control measures are arranged that will help in mitigating the risks with productive outcome.
Hence, the risk management systems are embedded with the operations of the airline
industries to control the disasters beforehand.
Safety Assurance
Risks are assessed in advance to mitigate them in order to avoid any adverse
situations that will put the daily operations at stake in the aviation organizations. However,
after the safety management of the risks, comes the assurance of safety that will ensure such

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risks will not happen again. Safety Assurance documented in the ICAO framework focuses
on both the airline organizations as well as the product or service providers. The safety
assurance methods complies with the requirements of the SMS and the orders, standards and
policies of FAA (Wilky et al. 2019). To assure safety, information is gathered regarding the
audits and the employee reports of the aviation departments. Data Analysis is conducted on
the information obtained that will help to improve safety measures and minimize the risks in
the operations.
Safety Promotion
Risk Management and Safety assurance components are effective in the operational
processes in the airline organizations. However, apart from the risk identification and
mitigation procedures, awareness about safety is another important aspect of the ICAO
framework. The promotion of safety is about training the employees on how to maintain the
safety culture within the organization and enhance smooth communication to handle risks
amongst the employees. The training will be on how to handle the Safety Management
Systems in the processes of the airline industry (Kraus et al. 2018). All levels of the
workforce should be inclined to promoting safety for the maintaining quality of services in
the best interest of the airline services.
Importance of Safety Management System
Air transportation is advantageous for the travellers as well as the business people
because it takes much less time and emergency meetings can be held within short span of
time at any place in the world. However, to avail air transportation system, the passengers
primarily look into the safety factors while travelling such that they can avoid accidents that
will risk their lives. Hence, aviation safety is of major importance for the airline organizations
because it involves numerous people who travel regularly using airlines. The safety of the

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aviation industry is the primary objective of the organization of ICAO (Adjekum 2017). This
organization constantly monitors the safety of the processes of the air transport community
and closely collaborates with the organizations to improve the standards of safety measures
with respect to the risk occurrences.
Safety procedures in the aviation industry is highly important because at every stage
of the operations, life of human is involved and thus safety is needed to protect the lives of
the human (Holt 2016). In case of any negligence in the operations, numerous risks will be
generated that will risk the life of the labours who are working within the operations. In
addition to that, if the manufacturing of the system is not done by maintaining the standards
of quality, it will lead to disruption in the services of the airplanes. It might also lead to
crucial events like plane crash due to the non-functionality of the components of the aircraft.
Due to these events, many people will lose their lives and thus, the safety in the operations is
a major criterion that the airline industry should look into.
Airline business is a huge and complex business that requires high standards of
maintenance to handle the risks and mitigate accordingly. If the aviation industry cannot
ensure safety to the customers, they will not be able to retain their trust and thus will suffer
from a major loss. Hence, the airline organizations should ensure safety in order to make their
transportation business ongoing and profit making in financial terms. The aircraft operations
involve humans at every stage of its business. The manufacturer should ensure safety by
using the right materials during the production. The maintenance should ensure accurate
technical operations such that no minimal error exists while fixing the issues (Wolf 2017).
The ground staff as well as the flight attendants should ensure that they take every possible
safety measures while the flight takes off and lands in the airport. Hence, safety in aviation
industry not only ensure to lessen life risks for the passengers but also reduce the life risks of
the technical experts involved behind the scenario.

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Evolution of SMS over time
The Safety Management System in the aircraft industry has evolved with time due to
the inventions of new age technologies and digital developments that has implemented great
contributions in order to maintain safety in the processes of the aviation work sphere. Safety
Management System revolves around making decisions in adverse situations. It requires the
expertise handling of the personnel who are involved in the situation. However, in the earlier
days of the aviation industry, the organizations lacked practical experience in handling the
technical risks associated with the operations in the airline companies (Zhao and Wan 2019).
Since, the aviation pioneers could not assess the risks in advance; they failed to adapt the
safety measures that will help them to overcome the risks incorporated in the system. The
situation improved with time when the expert technicians started gaining experience
regarding the issues and thus could implement safety measures with respect to the risky
situations.
Nowadays, safety is improved in each of the operations, by regulating the aviation
activities carefully. Certain toolkits are implemented in the operations of the aviation system
that helps to potentially reduce the risks and increase the safety in the airline operations. In
this implementation of the safety measures the focus generated on the ‘Human Factors’ that
highlighted the importance of human life in every operational process of the aviation industry
(Knutsen 2017). The casual factors that were dealt with ignorance are now looked upon
seriously in the safety management procedures. Continuous improvements are made on the
digital processes related to communication such that no communicational barriers occur
during the situational risks. The safety management systems also involves data analysis that
collects data and reports from the employees who have faced hazards in the earlier times.
Based on that, the aviation industries now adapt safety and security measures for their
employees as well as the passengers worldwide.

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Different types of Safety Culture in SMS
Due to the successful implementation of the Safety Management System in the
aviation industries, there are various types of safety cultures that are incorporated in the
processes of the airline companies that is helping their system to become more efficient in
their services and enhancing robust functionality of the technical operations. The first safety
culture in the SMS deals with ‘Commitment’ from all the subjected employees of the
organizations. The managerial bodies of the aviation companies should be committed to the
improvement in the safety measures and should not neglect the quality of the processes
(Noort et al. 2016). The employees, irrespective of their level should have a positive outlook
towards the procedures of the Safety Management System. The companies should invest
proper financial amount to incorporate safety systems to ensure safety to the employees.
The second type of safety culture in SMS is the ‘Behaviour’ towards maintaining
safety in the organizations. It defines how seriously the employees take the safety
management methods and carry them out potentially in order to maintain the optimum quality
of the processes. The management of the aviation companies should influence their
employees to maintain the safety policies and report about hazards in order to maintain safety
in all aspects. The third type of safety culture is ‘Justness’ in which the employees should be
treated justly and avoid any kind of discrimination or favouritism amongst them (Musa et al.
2019). The justness of an organization towards its employees will help them to maintain a
just attitude towards their work quality and influence them to participate in safety programs
of the organizations.
The fourth type of safety culture is the ‘Access to Information’ that specifically states
how the management deals the information of the organization. The management should
grant access to the employees about the safety related information such that the employees
are aware about their roles in maintaining safety in their tasks. The fifth safety culture is

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‘Awareness’ that promotes communication amongst the employees in the aviation companies
in case of any hazards or accidents. The employees should be made aware of the different
adverse risks and situations such that they are aware of the safety measures that has to be
taken with respect to that. The sixth safety culture is about ‘Adaptability’ towards the
changes in the organization (Kobayashi 2019). The employees should have the ability to react
proactively to the situational risks and implement mitigation strategies beforehand to avoid
any further hazards. The employees should have the capability to acquire data, procedure and
information about risky situations to create awareness about risks and associated safety in the
near future.

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