Learn about safety management systems and how having one can greatly benefit your organization.
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. SMS can also serve as a formal means of meeting statutory requirements such as Title 14 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) enforced by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the key processes of a safety management system are hazard identification, occurrence reporting, risk management, performance measurement, and quality assurance.
Safety Management System
The main purpose of a safety management system is to provide a systematic approach to managing safety risks in operations. It 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 operating and growing the business, especially in high-risk industries, such as aviation, energy, maritime, and construction, where health and safety are paramount.
Developing safety management systems can seem daunting at first, but they are essential to promoting and ensuring workplace safety. With the right technological solution, such as a digital platform, you can streamline this process.
Some benefits of having a safety management system include the following:
Safety management systems have four components in their framework. These are:
Each SMS component contains elements that describe specific needs for the successful implementation and maintenance of a safety management system. Originated from ICAO, these 12 safety management system elements that many industries have now adopted are:
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
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.
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.
In order to effectively control safety risks, designated staff should perform a series of interconnected processes collectively called Safety Risk Management (SRM). Listed below are the 5 steps that go into the safety risk management component of SMS:
| Risk Likelihood | Risk Severity | |||||
| Catastrophic A | Hazardous B | Major C | Minor D | Negligible E | ||
| Frequent | 5 | 5A | 5B | 5C | 5D | 5E |
| Occasional | 4 | 4A | 4B | 4C | 4D | 4E |
| Remote | 3 | 3A | 3B | 3C | 3D | 3E |
| Improbable | 2 | 2A | 2B | 2C | 2D | 2E |
| Extremely Improbable | 1 | 1A | 1B | 1C | 1D | 1E |
Safety Assurance (SA) is the component of a safety management system that deals with monitoring risk controls during operations. Common SA functions include internal audits, investigations, and employee reporting systems.
Upon gathering all necessary information, these 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.
Interchangeably used with Safety Culture, Safety Promotion is defined as the activities that support safety management systems in an organization, such as training, knowledge-sharing, and communication. Management should also be able to explain why particular actions are taken to foster an environment for open reporting of safety concerns.
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Some use cases for safety management systems include the following:
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Training plays a crucial role in the implementation and effectiveness of safety management systems. Training sessions that outline the necessary steps and obligations for safety management help ensure that employees are equipped with the knowledge and skills to identify and mitigate hazards, follow safety procedures, and respond to emergencies.
Additionally, regular training helps keep your organization compliant with different safety standards. It ensures that employees are constantly updated on important changes and concerns, as well as with different new processes and procedures.
Online training courses, in particular, are beneficial for seamlessly facilitating training for safety management systems. With these kinds of training content, you and your employees can train anytime and anywhere, all at your own pace.
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The aviation industry requires all businesses to have their own safety management systems, as they are essential in managing and mitigating risks in the air and the transport of goods and people.
In particular, the US FAA has multiple regulations on the proper creation and implementation of them for all aviation businesses to follow. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) also has provisions for properly creating and carrying out safety management systems.
Safety management systems are implemented in different ways across different industries. While the aviation industry has the same ways of implementing safety management systems, there are some differences in how they do so.
Some considerations specific to the aviation industry that one must be aware of include:
Implementing a safety management system the right way to fit your organizational needs can improve both your employees’ work experience and the quality of their work. By promoting safety in the workplace, you help foster a culture of improvement, enhancing management commitment and accountability. The output your organization provides will also be of a higher quality, thus improving sales and brand reputation.
For some organizations, it can take as little as three to four months to properly create and implement a safety management system. For others, it can take 12 to 24 months and then another 18 months to see results.
Roselin Manawis is a content writer and researcher for SafetyCulture. She has experience in news writing and content marketing across different fields of discipline. Her background in Communication Arts enables her to leverage multimedia and improve the quality of her work. She also contributed as a research assistant for an international study and as a co-author for two books in 2020. With her informative articles, she aims to ignite digital transformation in workplaces around the world.
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