Written by Jason L Hamlett CM, ACE, GSP, CPI (4/04/2024
Health and Safety Management Systems for Airports | Facebook

How to operationalize your airport's safety risk management (SRM) and safety assurance (SA) efforts.

As an active aviation professional, I have had the opportunity to network with my fellow peers who manage other North American airports. One of my friends and fellow operations managers, Joe Hennessey of Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport MSP, asked me an excellent question I would like to answer for the blog.

How did you operationalize your airport's safety risk management (SRM) and safety assurance efforts?

In essence, how do you assure your airport SMS is a living breathing system and not a check-the-box manual on someone’s shelf?

Disclaimer: The initial steps of SMS have to be addressed for this advice to be effective. Address leadership roles, policies, responsibilities, communication, training, and organizational culture first.

SRM has to be approached from both a known-hazard and an unknown-hazard perspective. What that means is that there will be specific hazards embedded in the nature of managing an airport's campus.

Some of these hazards will be unexclusive and affect every airport across the board. Only the hazard level will change depending on the complexity of the operation. A great example of this is wildlife activity. As long as there are birds in the air, there is a risk of an aircraft bird strike. For these known hazards, simply execute the five-step SRM process. This process should be documented and communicated to all levels. The hazards that you know exist are the low-hanging fruit. The hazards that you don’t know can be slightly more challenging. This is where SRM and SA support each other and share space inside their respective realms.

What I have found to be successful is to identify and embed a few SRM process triggers into the everyday processes of the organization. These triggers can be events or changes in the airport's operations that alert the SMS team to execute the SRM process. For example, construction on an airport terminal ramp that closes terminal gates. This will force the airline to temporarily plane and deplane passengers on the ramp. Because this is a new temporary way of loading and unloading, the airport should perform the assessment to ensure there are sufficient controls for each hazard. Each group of the airport organization must be familiar with the SRM process in relation to their specific job functions. Larger airports may have to train at least one member of each group who can execute the SRM process within their own team and supply the documentation to the safety office. SRM triggers can be proactive, reactive, or both. Other examples of SRM triggers include:

Safety complaints from the anonymous portal (reactive)
Employee hazard recognition (reactive)
Procurement of new vehicles, equipment, and tools (reactive and proactive)
Findings from JHA’s (proactive)
Construction pre-planning meetings (proactive)
Changes to the ALP (proactive)
Before and after inclement weather events (reactive and proactive)
Findings from inspections (reactive)
Findings from post-accident investigations (reactive)
Employee injuries (reactive)

When any of these triggers are identified at any level of the organization, the SRM process should be executed. The findings of the SRM should be shared with the accountable party for hazard mitigation decisions and implementation strategies. After completion of the SRM, be sure to follow the 4-step Deming cycle of continuous improvement. Communicate that the process was executed and its findings to the top boss, all the way to the lowest-level employee.

Operationalizing SA is approached slightly differently than SRM. I have found that SA is all about safety accountability at all levels. You cannot achieve SA unless you fill the gaps in safety accountability. Safety accountability starts at the top and is communicated down. Safety assurance starts at the bottom and is communicated. Every single worker, internal and external, has a role to play. The first level of safety assurance reporting typically starts with inspections performed by the crew foreman, individual supervisor, or site-specific safety representative. These individuals should be performing documented safety inspections of their respective areas of work. I have often heard that the safety office should be performing safety assurance inspections. This is only effective for small organizations with limited resources.

For large operations, SA inspections are a team lift. For example, my home airports are over 16k acres, combined with almost never-ending construction in the spring and summer and snow removal activity in the winter and fall. If the only safety inspections were performed by a limited safety team, then many hazardous actions, behaviors, and conditions would be missed. Not to mention, the front-line levels of SA will be robbed of their ability to be accountable for the hazards that affect their work. Another level of safety assurance is achieved thru a robust audit schedule. In simple terms safety audits are examination of the reported information above and a physical check to assure what is being reported exist in the real world. I will write a separate piece on safety audits as they can be involved.

When documentation from the SRM process and SA inspections is collected, the documentation should be uploaded to a digital platform. The digital platform should have the ability to generate reports and metrics. Performing statistical inference on the raw data gives the accountable executive the ability to develop hypotheses from identified problems. This is a scientific approach to safety-based decision-making based on the findings from safety data.

As I have said in my previous writings, safety management systems (SMS) for airports are a tailor-made suit that cannot be bought off the rack. There has to be a high level of customization to the airport’s exact operational needs, culture, and hazards. Following this simple advice will assure you that you are on the right track to fully operationalizing your airport's SMS efforts.

(airportsmstalk)

Health and Safety Management Systems (SMS) for Airport Operators

Tuesday, April 9, 2024