Safety management systems

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Safety management system (SMS) is a comprehensive management system designed to manage safety
elements in the workplace. It includes policy, objectives, plans, procedures, organisation, responsibilities
and other measures.[1] The SMS is used in industries that manage significant safety risks, including
aviation, petroleum, chemical, electricity generation and others.

Description Edit

An SMS provides a systematic way to identify hazards and control risks while maintaining assurance that
these risk controls are effective.[2] SMS can be defined as:

...a businesslike approach to safety. It is a systematic, explicit and comprehensive process for managing
safety risks. As with all management systems, a safety management system provides for goal setting,
planning, and measuring performance. A safety management system is woven into the fabric of an
organization. It becomes part of the culture, the way people do their jobs.[3]

For the purposes of defining safety management, safety can be defined as:

... the reduction of risk to a level that is as low as is reasonably practicable.

There are three imperatives for adopting a safety management system for a business – these are ethical,
legal and financial.

There is an implied moral obligation placed on an employer to ensure that work activities and the place
of work to be safe, there are legislative requirements defined in just about every jurisdiction on how this
is to be achieved and there is a substantial body of research which shows that effective safety
management (which is the reduction of risk in the workplace) can reduce the financial exposure of an
organisation by reducing direct and indirect costs associated with accident and incidents.
To address these three important elements, an effective SMS should:

Define how the organisation is set up to manage risk.

Identify workplace risk and implement suitable controls.

Implement effective communications across all levels of the organisation.

Implement a process to identify and correct non-conformities.

Implement a continual improvement process.

A safety management system can be created to fit any business type and/or industry sector.

Basic safety-management components Edit

International Labour Organization SMS model Edit

Since there are many models to choose from to outline the basic components of a safety management
system, the one chosen here is the international standard promoted by the International Labour
Organization (ILO). In the ILO document,[4] the safety management basic components are:

Policy

Organizing

Planning and implementation

Evaluation

Action for improvement

Although other SMS models use different terminology, the process and workflow for safety management
systems are usually similar;

Policy – Establish within policy statements what the requirements are for the organization in terms of
resources, defining management commitment and defining OSH targets
Organizing – How is the organization structured, where are responsibilities and accountabilities defined,
who reports to who and who is responsible for what.

Planning and Implementation – What legislation and standards apply to our organization, what OSH
objectives are defined and how are these reviews, hazard prevention and the assessment and
management of risk.

Evaluation – How is OSH performance measured and assessed, what are the processes for the reporting
of accidents and incidents and for the investigation of accidents and what internal and external audit
processes are in place to review the system.

Action for Improvement – How are preventative and corrective actions managed and what processes are
in place to ensure the continual improvement process. There is a significant amount of detail within each
of these sections and these should be examined in detail from the ILO-OSH Guidelines document.

Regulatory perspective Edit

Implications Edit

A SMS is intended to act as a framework to allow an organisation, as a minimum, to meet its legal
obligations under occupational safety and health law. The structure of a SMS is generally speaking, not of
itself a legal requirement but it is an extremely effective tool to organise the myriad aspects of
occupational safety and health (OSH) that can exist within an organisation, often to meet standards
which exceed the minimum legal requirement.

An SMS is only as good as its implementation – effective safety management means that organisations
need to ensure they are looking at all the risks within the organization as a single system, rather than
having multiple, competing, ‘Safety Management Silos.’[5] If safety is not seen holistically, it can interfere
with the prioritization of improvements or even result in safety issues being missed. For example, after
an explosion in March 2005 at BP's Texas City Refinery (BP) the investigation concluded that the company
had put too much emphasis on personal safety thus ignoring the safety of their processes.[6] The
antidote to such silo thinking is the proper evaluation of all risks, a key aspect of an effective SMS.[6]

ImplementationEdit

Adoption for industry sectors Edit

There are a number of industry sectors worldwide which have recognised the benefits of effective safety
management. The regulatory authorities for these industries have developed safety management
systems specific to their own industries and requirements, often backed up by regulation. Below are
examples from different industry sectors from a number of varied worldwide locations.

Civil aviation Edit

The International Civil Aviation Organization has recommended that all aviation authorities implement
SMS regulatory structures.[7] ICAO has provided resources to assist with implementation, including the
ICAO Safety Management Manual.[8] Unlike the traditional occupational safety focus of SMS, the ICAO
focus is to use SMS for managing aviation safety. Id.

The ICAO High-level Safety Conference 2010 recommendation 2/5 proposed the development of a new
Annex (19) dedicated to Safety Management. The Annex was published in February 2013 and entered
into force on November 14, 2013. The benefits identified of this approach included:

Address safety risks proactively;

Manage and support strategic regulatory and infrastructure developments;

Re-enforce the role played by the State in managing safety at the State level, in coordination with service
providers;

Stress the concept of overall safety performance in all domains.[9]

The United States has introduced SMS for airports through an advisory circular[10] and other guidance.
[11]

The United States announced at the 2008 EASA/FAA/TC International Safety Conference that they would
be developing regulations to implement SMS for repair stations, air carriers, and manufacturers. The FAA
formed a rulemaking committee to address the implementation (known as the SMS ARC).[12] The SMS
ARC reported its findings to the FAA on March 31, 2010. The Report recognizes that many of the
elements of SMS already exist in the U.S. regulations, but that some elements do not yet exist.[13] A
draft of what the US SMS rule might look like was proposed by one trade association that participated in
the ARC.[14] Currently, the FAA is supporting voluntary pilot projects for SMS.[15]

The Federal Aviation Administration has also required that all FAA services and offices adopt a common
Aviation Safety (AVS) Safety Management System (AVSSMS).[11] This is what ICAO calls a State Safety
Program (SSP).
The Federal Aviation Administration published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for the
establishment of SMS for air carriers.[16] That NPRM explains that it is intended to serve as the
foundation for rules that would later be applied to Part 135 operators, Part 145 repair stations and Part
21 manufacturers. Id. Several U.S. trade associations filed comments in response to the air carrier NPRM,
including the Aviation Suppliers Association (ASA) comments in response to the SMS NPRM.[17] and the
Modification and Replacement Parts Association (MARPA)[18] Among these comments were arguments
for developing separate SMS regulations for other certificate holders, in order to make sure that SM
remains a usable tool for advancing safety (rather than a uniform but useless paperwork exercise). In
addition, the Federal Aviation Administration has also filed a NPRM for SMS for airports,[19] which
would be separate from the rules for SMS for air carriers (consistent with the arguments of the trade
associations).

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) began the process of implementing Safety Management
System (SMS) regulations by issuing Terms of Reference (TOR) on July 18, 2011.[20] That was followed by
a Notice of Proposed Amendment (NPA) issued on January 21, 2013.[21] The proposed EASA regulation
would apply to repair stations,[22] but would have s

References Edit

^ "Major Hazard Facility". Safety Solutions Limited. Retrieved 19 April 2017.

^ "System Approach for Safety Oversight" (PDF). SASO Outreach. Spring 2009. Archived from the original
(PDF) on November 21, 2010. Retrieved 2009-09-29.

^ Transport Canada publication TP 13739 Archived June 16, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.

^ "ILO-OSH 2001 Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems". International
Labour Organisation. 1 January 2009. ISBN 92-2-111634-4.

^ Evans, Andy; Parker, John (May 2008). "Safety Management Systems" (PDF). Beyond Safety
Management Systems. AeroSafety World. pp. 12–17.

^ a b Baker, James A (January 2007). "Report of the BP US Refineries Independent Safety Review Panel"
(PDF).

^ "Safety Management". ICAO.

^ "Safety Management Manual" (PDF). ICAO. 2013.

^ Annex 19 (Safety Management Systems) Executive Summary Archived December 10, 2013, at the
Wayback Machine.

^ "Introduction to Safety Management Systems for Airport Operators". Advisory Circular 150/5200-37.
28 February 2007.

^ a b "Safety Management Systems". FAA.

^ http://pmaparts.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/can-you-implement-a-sms-program Blog Entry on the

SMS ARC Progress: Can You Implement a SMS Program?

^ Safety Management Systems Aviation Rulemaking Committee, Final Report

^ http://pmaparts.wordpress.com/2010/03/17/a-possible-look-for-sms-regulations/ Draft Part 195

(Safety Management Systems).

^ "Safety Management System, The Future of AFS Oversight" (PDF). FAA. Archived from the original (PDF)
on 7 June 2011. Retrieved 2009-09-29.

^ http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2010-11-05/pdf/2010-28050.pdf Notice of Proposed Rulemaking:

Safety Management Systems for Part 121 Certificate Holders, 75 Fed. Reg. 68224 (November 5, 2010).

^ http://www.aviationsuppliers.org/ASA/files/ccLibraryFiles/Filename/000000000572/2011-03-
07%20ASA%20SMS%20NPRM%20Comments.pdf

^ http://pmaparts.org/gvt/2011-03-07_MARPA_SMS_NPRM_Comments.pdf MARPA's Comments in

response to the SMS NPRM.

^ http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2010-10-07/pdf/2010-25338.pdf Notice of Proposed Rulemaking:

Safety Management System for Certificated Airports, 75 Fed. Reg. 62008 (October 7, 2010).

^ http://pmaparts.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/easa-begins-the-process-of-implementing-sms-rules/ See
Dickstein, EASA Begins the Process of Implementing SMS Rules (July 28, 2011).

^ http://aviationsuppliers.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/european-sms-proposal-will-likely-affect-
distributors/ See Dickstein, European SMS Proposal Will Likely Affect Distributors (January 21, 2013).

^ http://hub.easa.europa.eu/crt/docs/viewnpa/id_199 See Notice of Proposed Amendment (NPA) 2013-

01 (Jan 21, 2013).

^ http://aviationsuppliers.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/european-sms-proposal-will-likely-affect-
distributors/ See Dickstein, European SMS Proposal Will Likely Affect Distributors (January 21, 2013)
(discussing the potential effect of the rule on aircraft parts distributors).

^ http://www.imo.org/humanelement/mainframe.asp?topic_id=287[permanent dead link] International

Safety Management (ISM) Code 2002.