Employees remain the best source for detecting unsafe and potentially hazardous conditions in the workplace. Safety managers are often challenged regarding how to encourage employees to use aviation hazard reporting tools, such as Web-based hazard reporting forms, paper reporting forms, or offline hazard reporting software tools. 

It is common that aviation personnel reluctantly report safety hazards for fear of retaliation or for fear of appearing incapable of dealing with innate hazardous conditions.  Without fail, safety managers must inform employees of the various reporting options available to them, as well as the opportunity to remain anonymous. The well-structured and often communicated non-punitive reporting policy can reduce employee hesitation towards reporting hazardous conditions. Your company can have the best aviation SMS hazard reporting database software tools and still fail if employees don't believe in your non-punitive reporting policy.

Quality SMS tools must have the ability to submit reports to external systems simultaneously with the option to either submit automatically or to require a manager to review before reported issues are forwarded to regulatory authorities. 

SMS Pro is considerably more than a hazard/issue reporting system. A reporting system by itself does not satisfy the ICAO requirements for an effective SMS. An effective SMS covers the four element of: 
1) Safety Policy; 
2) Risk Management; 
3) Safety Assurance; and 
4) Safety Promotion 

--- SMS Pro Key Features at http://www.aviation-sms.com/SMSPro/KeyFeatures.aspx --- 

Safety Managers are usually not business managers and usually come from pilots or mechanics. They understand aviation and, sometimes,  risk management from the perspective of their operations.

Business managers often come from different fields and know very little about the inner workings of aviation. They understand the business case, i.e., what affects the bottom line.

In short, Safety Managers and Business Executives often speak different languages.

SMS Pro has many tools to help Safety Managers manage risk and communicate this risk to management. In fact, SMS Pro is user friendly and management can easily see for themselves where the money is going. SMS Pro was designed to be user friendly and valuable to the entire organization, not simply IT geeks and specialists.

See the Key Features of SMS Pro
http://www.aviation-sms.com/SMSPro/KeyFeatures.aspx

SMS Pro has tools to help safety managers communicate to executives to improve safety and reduce risk. In short, Safety Managers can use these tools to demonstrate return on investment and track performance of their projects.

Managers are in a hurry. They need accurate information in a timely fashion in order to make the best decisions.

How do your managers evaluate risk and their exposure to risk?

Can they easily pull up a risk exposure report in real time to determine whether operations are safer or their assets are better protected this month than by last month?

Can managers easily detect trends and learn why they are exposed to more risk this month or this year than last year?

Without a doubt, every aviation service provider is different. National aviation SMS programs should be designed to address the specific needs of individual aviation service providers. All formal SMS programs generally have these two common elements:

1. SMS policy statement of the aims of the risk management program and the responsibilities for safety, security, quality and compliance
2. Regularly scheduled audits and inspections of premises, equipment, and work practices

In this article, we will discuss SMS Policy and Audits elements of an effective ICAO SMS Program.

Today's economic challenges and regulatory requirements force aviation service providers to implement Web-based, integrated safety and risk management database systems to reduce their risk to public safety and ensure compliance to global flight safety standards. Many regulatory standards have surfaced since ICAO's November 2006 SMS mandate outlined in the ICAO SMS Manual 9859.

Adherence to these risk management standards is obligatory and many organizations have followed ICAO's lead by publishing their own set of best practices and auditing guidelines, including IOSA, IS-BAO, Air Charter Safety Foundation, ISAGO, EU/JAR Ops (Joint Aviation Requirements) Quality Assurance. SMS Pro was desgined according to the principles outlined in this documentation.

SMS Pro has become one of the most popular integrated Safety and Risk Management Web solutions with an enterprise level database. Easy-to-use Web tools allow all authorized users to effortlessly analyse data and generate reports without the necessity of additional support resources, such as highly trained analysts.

Aviation safety audits are systematic examinations used to determine whether or not business processes meet previously specified requirements, and are usually performed using question lists that are well-defined. Audit results are valuated and documented in audit management databases. Audit management tools designed for the aviation industry help aviation service providers plan and process audits, monitor corrective and preventive actions that were determined during aviation-related audits, and evaluate audit data according to different criteria.

Aviation service providers' audit management solutions should remain very flexible and allow aviation service providers to perform any type of audit that regulators or clients may require. For example, client-related quality audits (system audits, process audits, product audits, supplier audits), environmental audits, security audits (airport security, aircraft security, ramp security), or aviation safety audits. 

Aviation safety management systems, just like quality or environmental management systems depend upon the proper handling of data. Aviation safety professionals are not data management professionals, yet these folks must make decisions that will affect the entire organization for years to come. Properly structured databases and file systems allow aviation service providers to access and mine data in the most efficient manner.

This article describes some common data management challenges faced by aviation service providers around the world. Being aware of these SMS data management challenges will help safety professional choose a data management strategy that will continue to serve them well for many years.

In order to use your organization's Web-based SMS application, users must be trained in its use and demonstrate that they understand their role in the aviation SMS program and the overall objective of your oganizaitonal aviation SMS.

The SMS Induction process is entirely voluntary for an organization, but highly recommended in order to ensure that:

• Your users are trained in the elements of SMS for which they are responsible for; and
• Your organization can successfully and more efficiently withstand an audit.

Safety management systems can be defined as a synchronized, far-reaching suite of practices developed to lead and regulate resources to optimally administer safety, security, safety and compliance problems affecting daily activities. Effective safety management systems take unrelated processes and builds them into one coherent arrangement to realize the next level of safety implementation, making safety management a basic component of general risk administration, service safety and customer satisfaction.