Aviation Safety Management Systems (SMS): June 2015

Monday, June 8, 2015

Magic Question: Does Performance Satisfy Intent?

Evaluating Whether CPA Performance Satisfy Original Intent

After accepting corrective/preventive actions in safety management systems, airline or airport managers simply close the issue and review the issue sometime in the future, such as at a six or twelve month interval. If corrective/preventive actions (CPAs) aggravate the issue, these issues may be reopened and dealt with accordingly. Most airlines and airports are missing out on an opportunity to evaluate whether the CPA continued to prove effective and to document this continued effectiveness.

Documenting CPA effectiveness ensures that other airline and airport managers continue to assign effective CPAs to employees and avoid CPAs that have proven to cause problems or were a complete waste of time. How often have each of us performed a task only to learn later that it was the "wrong thing to do?"

Evaluating Corrective Preventive Actions for Effectiveness

In SMS Pro (a leading aviation safety management software suite), managers either accept or reject the performance of tasks. These tasks may be called "Work Orders," tasks, CPAs, CAPAs, "corrective actions," or something else at your airline or airport. To simplify matters, let's simply call them CPAs for this discussion, for "corrective/preventive actions."

While accepting the performance of a CPA in SMS Pro, managers simply evaluate whether the CPA satisfied the intent of the originator, whose objective was to mitigate or transfer risk, or to recover from an event. The easiest way to achieve this is to use tools we are all familiar with, as in this next image:

How much easier can this be? This simple rating communicates to other airline or airport managers whether this CPA should be used in the future, or whether this was NOT a good idea.

Review Effectiveness of Airline/Airport Corrective Preventive Actions

In a simple scenario, let's assume the department head thought that a particular CPA proved very effective in addressing a reported hazard. Upon a future review, the safety committee may decide this particular CPA caused more harm as time went by, or that the CPA quickly lost effectiveness. Safety committees can easily re-evaluate the effectiveness and update CPA effectiveness in SMS Pro's CPA Manager.

Updating the effectiveness of CPAs alerts managers that this particular CPA is GREAT, or is "BAD NEWS" should they wish to try to reuse the same approach on future issues.

Evaluating Effectiveness of Corrective Preventive Actions is GREAT Idea

Best practices in aviation safety management systems or aviation risk management systems dictate that CPAs should be evaluated and reviewed for effectiveness. Evaluating effectiveness is the first step. Communicating effectiveness is the next step. If your airline or airport fails to communicate CPA effectiveness, you are doomed to repeat past mistakes and miss the opportunity to save your organization time and money.

Using Automated Tools to Evaluate & Communicate CPA Effectiveness

Without automated software tools, evaluating and communicating CPA effectiveness is not possible to sustain. Too much effort is required to use either MS Excel or cheaply built aviation SMS software tools. Quality aviation SMS software should be easily configurable and adapt to how your airline or airport operates. If you need quality aviation SMS software, consider SMS Pro. Even SMS Pro's basic aviation SMS tools have these capabilities.

More information about aviation SMS software can be found at:

How to best help your
Aviation Safety Management System

Become an SMS PRO

About NWDS - founded in 2003 by six software engineers, NorthWest Data Solutions (NWDS) provides custom computer programming and systems design services. NWDS creates many types of software, including e-commerce, financial, defense, engineering, logistics, aviation and more. In 2007, NWDS developed SMS Pro™ a web based SMS application that supports an organization's overall SMS through safety reporting, safety documentation, safety risk management and safety assurance. SMS Pro™ is currently used by aviation organizations in the U.S., Canada, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East to help manage their SMS programs. NWDS continues to support SMS Pro™ and add new functionality. NWDS offers custom contract programming services in the U.S. and Canada and is managed by Chris Howell, one of the founders. Their headquarters is in Anchorage, Alaska. For information on NWDS visit their website at www.nwds-ak.com and www.asms-pro.com to learn more about SMS Pro™.

Saturday, June 6, 2015

Doing the Right Thing...Repeating Safety Tasks That Work

If it Works, Do it Again!
In a airline or airport with hundreds or thousands of workers, company knowledge and experience is difficult to disseminate, especially when one considers:

Language barriers;
Tight knit groups or organizational silos;
High turnover in management (every three to five years);
Conflicts between management groups;
Security, politics, organizational management structure;
Little or no documentation on corrective/preventive actions; and
Information ownership (not willing to share information).

How does a new manager know what worked in the past when confronted with a safety issue?

Effectively managing airline airport corrective preventive actions

How can airline and airport managers avoid repeating the same mistakes when dealing with issues, whether they are:

Safety;
Security;
Quality;
Compliance; or
Environmental?

SMS Pro can help. SMS Pro is a premier aviation safety management software suite designed for professional safety managers. SMS Pro allows airlines and airports to leverage their most valuable asset - the collective expertise of its employees and contractors.

Show Me What Works For My Safety Hazard

Imagine the perfect world where manager are confronted with problems and manager have instant access to corrective/preventive actions that have worked in the past. Imagine the time, energy and money saved by repeating corrective or preventive behavior that works! How can this information be beneficial?

Corrective preventive actions at airlines airports

Training Time for New Managers is Reduced

When new managers come to an airline or airport, they have little organizational knowledge of what has been tried in the past and whether these corrective/preventive strategies have been effective. When confronted with challenges, managers are helped resolve issues by using SMS Pro. SMS Pro shows them what has worked in the past and the level of effectiveness for proposed corrective/preventive actions.

Managers Not Relying on Memory to Deal With Safety Hazards

Airline and airport managers with plenty of experience often need to access to information relating to past experiences from dealing with corrective/preventive strategies. Our memories are imperfect. I have a hard time remembering what I ate for lunch yesterday, much less remembering how I dealt with a safety hazard last year, or two years ago. SMS Pro can help. SMS Pro offers immediate, real time information to airline and airport corrective/preventive actions.

Managers Reacting Consistently & Accurately & Promptly

With a list of corrective/preventive actions that have worked in the past for particular types of issues, airline and airport managers can be more consistent when dealing with similar types of issues. This list allows managers to quickly choose what has historically proven effective and apply the same strategies to new issues. Instant access to past information allows managers to delegate tasks quickly and to justify their corrective/preventive strategies to top management.

How Do SMS Pro Corrective/Preventive Actions Work?

Corrective/preventive actions are simply tasks. Some airlines and airports call them "Work Orders," CPAs or CAPAs. When creating a new CPA, SMS Pro offers managers the option to apply previous CPAs to address similar issues. CPAs are rated as to whether their performance satisfies intent. Most SMS Pro safety managers and department heads understand this feature because they see it whenever they accept or reject the performance of a corrective action.

adding airline airport corrective preventive actions relying on past performance

Show Me What DOES NOT Work For My Safety Hazard

If you are following along with the above logic, you will immediate recognize that with accurate, real time information regarding corrective/preventive actions, you can avoid making the same mistake over and over applying corrective/preventive actions at your airline or airport.

More information about aviation SMS software can be found at:

How to best help your
Aviation Safety Management System

Become an SMS PRO