SofemaOnline takes a look at what SMS Internal Reporting Elements should be addressed in the context of the Organisational 145 SMS 

Reporting Systems should include the possibility of Voluntary and Confidential Elements, however, please note that an essential feature of a successful system is the willingness of the Employees to engage with the system. In fact, this becomes a key measure of an effective system.

Introduction

The overall purpose of the internal safety reporting scheme is to use the reported information to improve the level of the safety performance of the organisation, and not to attribute blame.

The scheme is an essential part of the overall monitoring function and should be complementary to the normal day-to-day procedures and ‘control’ systems; it is not intended to duplicate or supersede any of them.

Do Organisations “underperform”?

Please consider the following questions:

Are you happy that as an Organisation you have assessed the Risk and exposure across the business to reduce it to its minimum exposure within the context of the organisations “reasonable” expectations (Here we reference the term as low as reasonably practicable ALARP)?

Are you happy with the level of reporting within the organisation? Not just the events, which have happened but also the “nearly events” how are you measuring the effectiveness of your internal reporting system?

As a general guy for every Mandatory Occurrence Report (MOR) or Service Difficulty Report (SDR).

A Discussion Paper by Steve Bentley Group CEO of Sofema Aviation Services www.sassofia.com

Clearing up the Basic Stuff

SMS is not QMS by another name they are both separate and both significantly important QMS together with Quality Assurance (QA) strives to deliver a fully compliant product or process, whereas SMS considers the risk associated with any & all business risks. SMS is both subjective & forward looking. A fully functioning Safety Management System contributes to the viability of the organisation by addressing safety risk.

SMS should focus on real-time performance monitoring and reporting together with effective data analysis – a major challenge being to consider how to capture the required data across the business in a valid way.

An essential element of any system is to be able measure the effectiveness of the various processes which are involved in delivering the overall product.

The Quality System consists of 2 distinct parts:

a) The Quality Control Processes – Embedded in all production areas
b) The Quality Audit Processes – An independent way of assessing point a) above

By measuring the effectiveness of both parts of the company’s quality system (QA & QC) we will be able to provide a detailed status of the strength of the Quality Management System (QMS) as well as to provide a detailed understanding which will facilitate management planning and development.

Step 1 - Organisation & Regulatory Review

Considering the Fundamental EASA QA/ QC Relationship

The Quality Manager (Compliance Manager) is responsible for the independent assessment of compliance – not to loose sight that this process is additional and should be considered as a Safety Net rather than a primary method of ensuring compliance.

The Continuing Airworthiness Manager (CAM) is responsible for the QC Activities related to the compliances which are validated during the ACAM process.

Building on this understanding means that an effective oversight of an effective process will focus on the physical management, delivery and maintenance of competence within the system of control.

The Regulatory Point of View

Compliance Auditing brings with it the daily challenge of ensuring that the organisation remains at all times fully compliant with both internal and external obligations.

The Audit Management, Control and Oversight system should ensure that the established safety and quality procedures are fully complied with.

In addition :

a)     To plan and deliver audits

b)     To review findings

c)     To perform root cause analysis and develop additional actions where necessary (under the specific control or guidance of the business area owner of post holder)

In an effective Quality Management System QMS monitoring is a continuous process. It is essential to ensure robust and continuous oversight of all internal processes, and procedures.

There are many misconceptions and misunderstandings regarding Aviation Safety Management Systems (SMS) and Quality Management Systems (QMS).

The following is intended hopefully to clear up this misunderstanding:

QMS and SMS - Offers many common methods and techniques, but provides different outcomes an objectives:

Sufficient competent resources are critical to the success of both the CM system and the SMS. It is also important to realize that essentially the role of both QMS and SMS is to provide a service to the management team to understand both the non-conformities and risks which they face within the business areas.