One area that should be addressed is ensuring that the risk matrix used in SMS Pro matches the risk matrix in your SMS Manual. Configuring your risk matrix can be accomplished by following the steps in this video: https://www.screencast.com/t/qTJCH5rREWiG

Your primary polices related to safety should be added to the Policy Manager Module.
The ones you should ensure are set areL

• CEO (or whatever title your Accountable Executive holds) Commitment to Safety
• Safety Policy
• Non-punitive Reporting (this is one of the first things your inducted users will see when reporting issues)
• About Reporting issues. (what is important to your SMS to be reported? What should NOT be reported in your SMS?)

Many of these should already exist in your SMS Manual. If you do not have an SMS Manual yet, we have a template for one available on our premium content downloads page, found in the documentation page mentioned in the email to you from when your portal was first configured. In it you can find a template for the non-punitive policy, as well as other good template documentation.

This list of policies and procedures should also be refined to match your company’s operations. If you do not have a policy or procedure that is listed by default, it should be removed, and any listed that are not already there should be added.

The description of duties and responsibilities of key personnel should be entered into the module of the same name for many reasons:

• Clarity and Accountability: Clearly defining roles and responsibilities ensures that every individual within the organization understands what is expected of them concerning safety management. This clarity helps in establishing accountability, ensuring that each person knows their specific duties in maintaining safety standards.
• Efficient Workflow: By delineating duties, the aviation safety management system can streamline workflow processes. When each person knows their role, tasks are assigned and executed more efficiently, reducing the likelihood of oversight or confusion.
• Risk Mitigation: Aviation operations inherently involve risks. Identifying and assigning responsibilities related to safety management help in mitigating these risks effectively. Personnel responsible for specific tasks can focus on their areas of expertise, thereby minimizing the chance of oversight or error.
• Compliance: Many aviation regulatory authorities require organizations to have a documented SMS as part of their compliance measures. Clearly outlining the duties and responsibilities of key personnel demonstrates to regulators that the organization is committed to safety and is actively managing risks.
• Coordination and Communication: A well-defined structure of responsibilities fosters effective coordination and communication among team members. When everyone knows who is responsible for what aspect of safety management, it becomes easier to collaborate, share information, and address safety issues promptly.
• Continuous Improvement: By documenting the duties and responsibilities of key personnel, organizations can better evaluate the effectiveness of their safety management system. Regular reviews allow for adjustments to be made, ensuring that roles evolve in response to changing organizational needs and industry standards.

This list should also be refined to match your company’s operations. If you do not have a role that is listed by default, it should be removed, and any listed that are not already there should be added. Oftentimes, this information is already detailed in your SMS Manual and can be copy and pasted into the description for each role, or a link to the applicable section of the manual can be entered for each role if you have the ability to do so.

Including an organizational chart in an aviation safety management system promotes clarity, transparency, accountability, risk identification, collaboration, compliance, and a strong safety culture within the organization. Oftentimes this is an image file that can be easily uploaded following the instructions in this video: https://youtu.be/ZvsegPrT0L4

This page is used to announce the implementation of your SMS. If you have a document already containing this information, you can add a link to it here, or copy and paste the text. If not, you can download a template of an "All Employee Letter" to modify and paste into the editor.

Typically any references to regulations that apply to your operations are posted here for quick reference available to all of your inducted employees. If you already have a list of these available, adding a link to that location is all that is necessary. In addition to having the information easily available to your employees, you should add this content here as it is our experience that auditors do not like seeing empty content in your SMS. How to add links to this module is discussed in this video: https://youtu.be/tH03m2PxIhI

The initial Gap Analysis for your organization should be completed during this first six months of use, allowing you to identify where the company sits in comparison to industry standards, and allowing for improvement in areas found deficient. Performing a gap analysis in aviation safety management is a systematic approach to ensuring compliance, identifying and mitigating risks, promoting continuous improvement, and ultimately enhancing safety across the entire aviation system. It is an integral part of a proactive and effective safety management system in the aviation industry.

In addition to completing an initial Gap Analysis as part of your SMS Pro implementation, performing a Gap Analysis should be at least an annual task, to ensure growth of your SMS.

By now you should have taken a peek at Issue Manager, which will likely be the module you spend the most time in. At first it can seem confusing for some operators, but we are here to help.

The basic workflows for Safety Risk Management in SMS Pro are documented in workflow diagrams that can be downloaded.

At its simplest, the typical life cycle of an issue is as follows:

1. Issue is reported by user
2. Notification emails are sent to all users who are configured to be notified of a new issue submission
3. A safety manager will review the issue that they have been notified of and begin addressing the issue as follows:
   1. Assess the Issue
      1. Initial assessment:
         1. Review if the issue is valid and will be managed in the SMS
         2. Provide a risk statement (Risk statements allows safety managers to effectively communicate risk to a wide audience that may possess variable experience and knowledge of aviation operations)
         3. Perform an initial risk assessment using the risk matrix
         4. Set a target closure date (when should the issue be resolved by? Will vary depending on risk level)
   2. Classify the Issue
      1. Update the Type of concern (as needed)
      2. Enter / edit the date / time of occurrence (as needed)
      3. Set any issue security (as needed)
      4. Assign the issue to the appropriate department and manager
      5. Classify the issue (**Important step, as it drives your issue data**)

When the appropriate manager has been assigned to this issue, they will receive a notification of the assignment and can begin this step at any point in the life cycle

4. Manage the Issue
   1. Review the management of the issue thus far (all details the Safety Manager has added)
   2. Perform preliminary investigation using investigation model selected for the portal (typically 5 whys, but can be another template) to identify the root cause of the issue
   3. Manage Corrective / Preventative Actions to address the issue and especially the root cause identified above.
   4. Communicate Risk to relevant personnel (as needed)
5. Close the Issue
   1. When all assigned corrective actions have been accepted as complete by the responsible department head user, an automatic email notification will go out to safety managers, informing them that the corrective actions are complete.
   2. Perform a closing assessment on the issue using the risk matrix
   3. Set a “Next Review Date” as needed
   4. Change the status of the issue to closed, and provide a closing comment
6. Validate the Issue
   1. If you set a review date for the issue, when that date approaches you can review the issue and corrective actions, and see if all actions taken to mitigate the issue are still valid, and no recurrence has occurred. If everything is acceptable, you can stop reviewing the Issue, or, you can continue to monitor the issue by recording your review, and then setting the next review date for further in the future. Once you are satisfied with the handling of the issue and are no longer reviewing, the life cycle for the issue comes to a close.

The issue life-cycle can be more involved too, depending on the nature of the issue you may need to open a formal investigation. The Issue manager module can be made more complex as needed as well, the Settings pop-up in Issue manager allows you to turn on/off features to tailor it to your operations and workflows. If you have any questions about any of these items, just reach out to us and we will be happy to help.

It is important to keep your Issue Classifications in mind when first configuring your SMS Pro portal. If you have not yet had an opportunity to fine-tune these items to your company’s operations, doing a little at a time over time is not a bad approach.

Out of the box, SMS Pro provides you with a number of classifications common to many sectors of the aviation industry. But to avoid noise, and have the best quality data quantifiers for all data-mining you will want to do, they should be tailored specifically to your operations.

The intent of classifications in SMS Pro is to set data points important to your company (not just Key Performance Indicators) for use in your data-mining activities.

Some important information to keep in mind about classifications:

• Classifications belong to a division, and not the portal itself
• The classifications provided by default are a combination of common classifications from across all sectors of the aviation industry, so some may not be relevant to your operations, and should be removed at your convenience

Classification Best Practices

• Classifications should be in a three-tier system
  • Parent Level – Highest level in taxonomy. An organizational element
    • Event Type – Second level in taxonomy. An organizational element
      • Descriptor Level – The specific detail describing the incident

  If you find that classifications you are trying to create are not able to fit into a three-tier structure, maybe rethink the organizational elements. It could be that the item you believe should be at level one may in fact be a level-two item for a different parent level.

• Classifications should be distinct
  • A classification in a single division should not be found in multiple Classification Types
• Classifications should not already tracked by SMS Pro
• When classifying issues, a general rule is to classify with:
  • At a minimum, ONE Type of Issue Classification
  • ONE Hazard Classification {there is only one primary dangerous condition per safety issue}
  • Multiple Root Cause Classifications
  • One to Three Human Factors (as applicable)
  • Two or fewer Safety Policy/Procedure Classifications (as applicable)
  *These are not hard rules, they are simply best practices
• Don’t apply too many classifications to each issue
  • Leads to tedious and over-saturated data
• Don’t update and review existing classifications
  • Leads to unreliable data

Types of Classification available in SMS Pro

• Type Of Issue
  • What kind of problem is this?
  • Items listed here should not be Identified hazards or Root Causes
• Associated Hazards
  • Originates in Proactive Hazard Analysis Tool (PHAT)
  • Helps feed Hazard Register
• Human Factors
  • The environmental, organizational and job factors, and human and individual characteristics, which influence behavior which can affect safety
  • Although it breaks the best practice of classifications being unique, items listed here may be found in duplicate in Associated Hazards, as a specific Human Factor can be a known hazard that has specific risks and controls in place
• Policies / Procedures
  • Directly fed from your Policies and Procedures module
  • Is this issue related in any way to your Policies and Procedures in place?
• Root Causes
  • Items that contributed to an event taking place
• Locations
  • Will come blank due to being unique to your operations
  • What locations that are not already configured (such as airports or map points) due your issues commonly take place?
• Parts
  • Will come blank due to being unique to your operations
  • Are any parts used in your operations directly affecting issues?
• Job Tasks
  • Will come blank due to being unique to your operations
  • Are tasks your users perform directly affecting issues?
• Global
  • Hidden by default, as many operators make use of a single division
  • Will come blank due to being unique to your operations
  • Are items that you will want to track as a single, company-wide data point
  • Unlike the other classifications in this list items found here are not division specific
  • Of the above items, only Type of Issue and Associated Hazards cannot be hidden, all other classification types can be hidden if you would not use them as data points in your data mining operations

How to Use Classification Data

• Classifications are often used in trend analysis, when trying to determine things like:
  • How many times were we exposed to ____ in the last year? How did we handle it?
• Establishing and monitoring Key Performance Indicators
• Modifying Safety Goals and Objectives
• Monitoring the effectiveness of risk controls

The act of classifying an issue is such a small step in the overall process of managing an issue, but the power of that step, especially when done in conjunction with well thought out classifications schemas is incredible, and makes the task of providing detailed information about your SMS simple.