Auditing the Management of Change Process for Effectiveness
Multiple changes WILL occur within the aviation system, both internal and external including regulatory changes, management changes, equipment changes, changes in procedures process or manning levels.
A change management process should be a documented strategy to proactively identify and manage the safety risks that can accompany change, whilst it is focused on significant change, in fact any change may have a “knock on” or trickle down effect. An effective process will assess in fact all change. Changes may impact existing mitigations or introduce new risks and exposures and it is necessary to have a formal process to assess and measure the impact.
This process requires the full force of the SMS Hazard and Risk Assessment Process which requires that any perceived safety risks connected to the consequences of hazards to be analysed developed, implemented and subsequently evaluated and measured for effectiveness.
Compliance or Safety Auditing? In fact once we develop an internal company procedure then to audit the delivery of this procedure in an effective way is in actual fact a compliance audit. If we evaluate it against our expected performance then we are looking at a Safety System Audit.
In general this criteria holds true for all Compliance and Safety Audits, whenever we are measuring what we see, examine or experience against a standard then we are dealing with compliance audits conversely whenever we are assessing the risk or effectiveness of a process against expectations (not a standard but a subjective expectation) then we are in the domain of Safety Auditing.
The Change Management Process should ensure that any hazards associated with the change are formally and systematically identified and managed, and that a formal process exists to ensure the management of the change is continually evaluated and monitored.
The competence of the persons involved in the evaluation process is highly critical to the effectiveness of the process. Consideration should be given to ensure that stakeholders from all departments affected in the change have a direct input into the evaluation process. In any event a formal competence management process is expected.
Safety Assurance should ensure that throughout the lifecycle of the change, management are presented with feedback regarding the effectiveness of the implemented processes as well as the overall health of the system.
Consider the effectiveness of the various mechanisms which exist in your system, how are you able to measure this, essentially to consider that to achieve the maximum effectiveness then we should be able to demonstrate a measure against which we can assess each and every element.
Sofema Aviation Services offers a number of specific SMS training courses to support you to implement and optimise your Aviation Safety Management System.
For details please see www.sassofia.com or email office@sassofia.com
Tags:
Safety Auditing, Aviation Safety, Change Management Process, Aviaiton Services
