Avionics News April 2019 - 20

MANY ORGANIZATIONS STRUGGLE WITH SAFETY
MONITORING AND MEASUREMENT; THAT IS, IDENTIFYING AND
ESTABLISHING KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS AND SAFETY
METRICS. THIS IS ONE AREA IN WHICH THE NEW STANDARD
IS PARTICULARLY HELPFUL, PROVIDING A NUMBER OF
SAMPLE METRICS AN AVIATION ORGANIZATION MAY CHOOSE
TO TRACK AND ANALYZE.

A NEW SMS STANDARD
Continued from page 19

participate in an SMS designed for flight operations. For
example, the IATA Operational Safety Audit, International
Standard for Business aviation Operations, and the Air Charter
Safety Foundation Industry Audit Standard are built largely on
the concepts of SMS.
Does the new international standard for design, maintenance
and manufacturing require a large-scale overhaul of your SMS
policies and procedures?
A major overhaul is unlikely. Here again, IOSA, IS-BAO,
and ACSF IAS follow the road map provided in ICAO Annex
19. However, you might want to review the standard to identify
any gaps related to your current SMS and - quite possibly -
discover new or more effective ways to implement your SMS.
In fact, reviewing the new international standard might help
you integrate your maintenance- and flight-related SMS activities more successfully.
Key takeaways from new standard
The new international standard provides relevant, real-life
guidance to a number of common SMS challenges.
Many organizations struggle with safety monitoring and
measurement; that is, identifying and establishing key performance indicators and safety metrics. This is one area in which
the new standard is particularly helpful, providing a number of
sample metrics an aviation organization may choose to track
and analyze.
Likewise, the new standard provides detailed guidance on
what type of event should trigger an organization's change
management process, another area in which some organizations get bogged down - either analyzing too many small
changes, thereby wasting resources, or not analyzing the
changes that truly impact an organization. The new standard
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2019

lists a number of sample changes worthy of analysis.
SM-0001 also discusses interfaces between organizations,
whether internally within one company or entity, externally
between multiple companies or externally with a company's
aviation authority. The interfaces section focuses on safety data
exchanges and shared safety promotion.
It also recommends a corporate SMS to help streamline SMS
implementation in a consistent approach across the organization.
Finally, the standard provides an SMS implementation plan
with key actions for each phase of SMS maturity. While a
simplified and consolidated discussion of SMS implementation,
it may be a useful tool for maintenance and repair organizations
beginning SMS implementation or looking for the next step in
development.
What's next?
The bottom line is this - because SMS is spelled out in
ICAO Annex 19 and ICAO member states will strive to align
with those standards and recommended practices when they
conduct rulemaking related to SMS, there's not much room for
creativity in developing an SMS standard. The ICAO provides
the basic road map. The new international standard follows that
road map, as does the AEA's SMS and many flight operationsbased SMS and audit programs.
Maintenance and repair organizations should review SM0001 and use it as a guide to develop or improve their own
safety management policies and procedures. Companies participating in the AEA SMS may pick up some tips to improve their
internal procedures but are unlikely to need a major overhaul of
their SMS program to be in compliance with SM-0001.
Learn more about the international standard at aiac.ca/
wp-content/uploads/2018/10/SMS-Standard_final-issueA_20180917.pdf.
Learn more about the AEA's SMS program at aea.net/sms. q

http://aiac.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/SMS-Standard_final-issue-A_20180917.pdf http://aiac.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/SMS-Standard_final-issue-A_20180917.pdf http://aiac.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/SMS-Standard_final-issue-A_20180917.pdf http://aea.net/sms

Avionics News April 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News April 2019