When The SMS Manager Is Silenced

The person managing the safety management system (SMS manager) can easily be silenced by the accountable executive (AE), who is responsible for regulatory compliance on behalf of the certificate holder (CH). Silencing the SMS manager is not intended to withdraw from the safety management system (SMS) itself but is simply a business and contract decision made by an AE. An accountable executive is not an SMS expert and may struggle with accepting work by an SMS manager, since an SMS is intangible, SMS operations runs smooth, but financial results are not visible. 

An accountable executive is often the chief executive officer (CEO) of an organization and is trained to analyze tangible results. An AE is result oriented, and when an SMS does not produce any results, or does not have much to show for, an AE could fall in the trap and force the issue. Forcing the issue is to find a tangible root cause that can be changed or replaced. SMS might be a businesslike approach to safety, but it is not compatible with business principles, and is unable to compete with tangible business results. Without tangible results, an SMS becomes a liability to an organization, since there is only operational cost associated without any revenue to show for. An imaginary saving due to lack of accidents is not a taxable revenue yet.

When applying a businesslike approach to safety it is vital for a successful startup and operations of the business is on the right track from the beginning. Starting up a business takes more than cash. It takes strategic planning. Many businesses started up with little cash but became successful by their strategies. Business strategies may be as simple as selling used items out of a garage, to a complex strategy designing artificial intelligence. 

The first question to answer when building a safety management system, is what type of an SMS needs to be built. Before an operator starts spending money to set up their SMS, it is essential to ensure that the SMS idea has the potential to be successful. It is a competitive world out there, and safety needs to compete with on time departures and arrivals, it needs to compete with snow, rain, and other extreme weather conditions. Taking some time to research what affects safety in operations within an operational area, will pay off in the long run. 

Just as a successful business needs to stand out from the crowd, a successful safety management system needs to sand out. When an SMS is regulated, there are regulatory requirement any SMS must conform to, but a successful SMS conforms to processes with their customers in mind. An SMS enterprise must define who their target customers are. Regulatory compliance is a priority, but the regulator is not the target customer. Target customers are the users, tenants, airport and airline personnel, air traffic services, and anyone else who are associated with an airport or airline. 

It takes money to start up a safety management system. Buildings, offices, equipment, vehicles, computers, software, personnel, tools, and training are essential for a successful SMS. One of the first operators to implement a regulatory SMS, tracked the implementation cost to a million dollars. A million dollars is a large investment for intangible results. When starting up an SMS business, it is crucial to do the homework, research, and develop expected outcome results. An outcome result that there were no accidents today is not an SMS investment, or business investment result. The value, or money earned, by lack of accidents is not a taxable income yet. 

To find a profitable niche, an SMS enterprise needs do some initial market research to identify their target customers and understand their needs and desires. Airports and airlines should also get familiar with the competition and pinpoint market gaps they can fill. Traditionally airlines are operating out of larger and international airports. This does not change with a safety management system. However, an airport with fewer or no scheduled air operations, could tailor their SMS to business jets and private charters. The future is in smaller aircraft charter where the cost of travel is competitive to the cost of purchasing an airline ticket. Travelling on private jet charters normally takes a person closer to their destinations, since they are operating out of low-movement airports located in relatively remote areas. Airport with a successful SMS has fixed base operators (FBO) on their field, that has been granted the right by the airport authority to operate on the airport and provide aviation services, such as fuel, parking, and hangar space, to non-scheduled air charters, and to the aviation community. The future in aviation and success of the safety management system is in the hands of airport authorities to accommodate for the increased private jet charters. 

An airport goal is to find the right service market fit, which is the sweet spot where airports are attracting customers and turning them into loyal customers and advocates for the airport. During the preplanning startup stage of a safety management system is also the time to research investors and answer any objections they will have. Investors need to see that their investment will produce an acceptable return on investment. Investors are expecting to receive cash dividends, which an SMS does not generate in a traditional way. Company share holders and investors may rightfully request financial statements showing that their safety management system is a profit generator.  

A silenced SMS manger may be discouraged to conduct system analyses, risk analyses and other process control tasks in fear of making decisions which are opposing to business expectations. An SMS manager may find it more productive to accept reasonable demands that are in non-compliance with SMS principles, as opposed to maintain a healthy SMS. When there is no profit to show for, the SMS manager becomes an easy target to silence. When an SMS manager is silenced, an SMS non-conforming to SMS principles will deteriorate over time. A deteriorating SMS happens over a longer time period, over several years and goes undetected for those who do not fully comprehend a safety management system.

The accountable executive is the person who is responsible for operations or activities authorized under the certificate and accountable on behalf of the certificate holder for meeting the requirements of the regulations. Maintaining regulatory compliance is the priority for both airlines and airports since a non-compliant operation is jeopardizing the validity of their operating certificate. Without maintain a certificate in good standing, their operations may cease to exist. Several airline operators, small and large, have in the past temporary lost their operating certificate, while others lost it for the foreseeable future.

Maintaining regulatory compliance is an expense which in itself does not generate a revenue. For airports and airlines to generate SMS revenue they need to establish what their SMS services and SMS products are. After this is established, then they may itemize items and set their sales price. Establishing SMS services and products is a mindboggling project, since everything need to be safe, and it is emotionally difficult to apply different price to safety items, and to establish different levels of safety.

When an SMS viewed as a wheel with spokes it becomes manageable to assign lines of expenses and income. When viewing an SMS as a wheel, there are no levels of safety, but there are lines of safety, where each line, or spoke, are equally important contributors to a profitable SMS. Prior to the regulated SMS, there were no hub, other than the CEO, that profit and loss could be contributed to. With the implementation of the safety management system, the SMS becomes the hub where operational expenses and incomes are allocated to. With an SMS, every areas of operations are contributed to the SMS hub. With this approach it becomes a simpler task to determine how, or if, their SMS is a profit generator. 

When the blueprint for an SMS operation has been designed, an operator takes on the goalsetting task and establish objectives for how to reach their SMS goals. Create a vision for the airport or airline for the long-term future. The clearer the vision is, the faster an SMS enterprise move toward their goals, and the faster these goals move towards the SMS. It is crucial for success that these goals and objectives are written in the SMS safety policy. When a clear mental picture of where an organization wants to go, the people in the organization become more positive, more motivated, and more determined to make it a reality. A natural creativity is triggered, and everyone come up with idea after idea to help make the vision come true.  

When setting goals, decide exactly what the organization want in each area of operations and include financial goals. Most people do this as wishes, but never do this clearly in a goalsetting environment. Write down each goals clearly and specifically. Something amazing happens between the mind and a hand when goals are made in writing. Set a deadline for each goal. Set sub-deadlines if a goal is big enough. Give a target to aim at. Make a list of everything you can think of that needs to be done to achieve each goal. As new ideas come up, add them to the list until it is complete. Organize the list into a plan of action. Determine what needs to be done first and what can wait until later. Decide what is more important and what is less important. Act on the plan immediately. It is amazing how many splendid goals and plans are never realized because of procrastination and delay. Last, or perhaps most important, do something every day to move at least one step closer to the most important goal. A commitment to daily action moves an SMS enterprise closer to a successful goal.

With goals and avenues to funnel these goals, an SMS manager can promote the safety management system and allocate operational revenues to every avenue leading to the SMS hub. An SMS manager who is not silenced has unlimited opportunities to turn an SMS around to a profit generator. 



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