Our industry does a pretty good job of making Safety Management Systems (SMS) sound about as onerous as possible, but the reality is that the fundamentals of the SMS process are quite simple. If we’d simply do a better job of communicating and understanding these fundamentals, adoption and engagement would be so much more enjoyable. Let’s explore the fundamentals as we start 2026 and take the boogeyman out of the picture!
SMS has four components – Policy, Promotion, Safety Risk Management, and Safety Assurance. Translated,
- Policy refers to the organization’s documented stance on safety and the affirmation of the non-punitive aspects of participation.
- Promotion means that the organization trains its team on the procedures to perform safely and keeps them updated on safety news and progress on an ongoing basis.
- Safety Risk Management is a process by which each member of the organization can submit reports about problems, recommendations, and concerns. Management then reviews these reports to identify the factors contributing to the problems and develops corrective actions or new risk controls to prevent them. Finally,
- Safety Assurance ensures the organization is doing what it says it will do. Are procedures being followed? Are we experiencing problems that our procedures were designed to avoid? Are we seeing a trend in a particular causal factor that warrants a closer evaluation before it culminates in a legitimate problem?
That’s it, your SMS Public Service Announcement for a safe 2026! Keep it simple, keep it safe! Checkout VOCUS SMS https://www.polarisaero.com/solutions/vocus-sms and contact sales@polarisaero.com for more information that can take your safety program to the next level.
Steve Bruneau
Vice President, Aviation – Polaris Aero LLC
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