What Makes a Company Small to Medium ?
What are the added challenges in implementing a Safety Management System in Small to medium Companies ?
What does EASA Say ?
An effective Safety Management System is an essential tool to raise the understanding that the organization faces in respect of the various risks affecting the business.
Small companies may range from a few employees up to a medium company with 500 employees.
An essential element of the implementation process for Small to Medium Companies is to develop a full understanding of the current position.
EASA Part Ops requirements consider SMS in terms of the management system whether it is complex or non complex. For example in a non complex system. Safety risk management may be performed using hazard checklists or similar risk management tools or processes, which are integrated into the activities of the organisation.
What else does EASA say ? “The organisation should manage safety risks related to a change. The management of change should be a documented process to identify external and internal change that may have an adverse effect on safety.. It should make use of the organisation’s existing hazard identification, risk assessment and mitigation processes”.
A Safety Management System provides a mechanism to proactively seek, identify, quantify and mitigate risks and potential hazards which exist in the business.
Essential steps to achieve an effective SMS include.
A full and detailed understanding of the EASA or ICAO requirements together with the impact they may have on your organization – this process is called Gap Analysis – It allows us to understand the current situation by Identifying where we are currently within our organization.
How many organizational roles will we employ in the business ranging from part time in a very small company to several people working full time in a larger organisation. What will we do in respect of. Action Groups, – Working Groups and the role of Safety Reps.
Understanding the responsibilities of the Safety Manager or Safety Management Process and the role of Quality Assurance and Safety Assurance in the organisation.
An essential step regardless of the size of the company is the need to raising awareness, and deal with acceptance & communication to promote real cultural change in your organisation to positively effect the SMS outcome.
It is most important that we all should understand the difference between the roles of quality and safety, also the importance of bringing together Quality Safety and Human Factors in the work place.
Sofema Aviation Services offers many specialized trainings I the field of Safety Management Systems for details please visit www.sassofia.com or email office@Sassofia.com
