Safety Management Systems
What is SMS?
A safety management system, or an SMS, is a set of processes intended to improve the way that a business manages safety.
The SMS typically starts with high level safety policies from upper management, which are intended to reflect management’s commitment to safety. The safety policy is typically supplemented with safety goals that are related to the policy and are set by management in order to highlight the safety achievement expectations. These will often be tracked using metrics that reveal the safety achievement of the business, and that allow management to control and improve safety.
PMA manufacturers have a responsibility to assure that safety is the top priority in their operations. Safety has been described by the FAA as "aviation's 'North Star' that guides all else". An SMS program provides a proactive decision-making process for identifying hazards and mitigating risk.
The FAA Aircraft Certification Service (AIR) launched a Part 21/Safety Management System (SMS) Rulemaking Project in September 2014, led by the Policy and Innovation Division's System Performance and Development Branch (AIR-6E0), who worked with industry to create a Voluntary SMS Program (VSMS). AIR’s VSMS Program is available to any design and production approval holder organization interested in developing an FAA-accepted SMS.
MARPA has published several articles about adopting a voluntary SMS program, which are available below:
- J Dickstein, SMS - What Makes it Useful? Part One: Hazard Identification, 39 AVIATION MAINTENANCE MAGAZINE #1, January 10, 2020, at 48.
- J Dickstein, SMS: Making It Useful Part Two Risk Assessment and Likelihood, 39 AVIATION MAINTENANCE MAGAZINE #3, May 16, 2020.
- J Dickstein, SMS: Making It Useful Part Three Risk Consequence, 39 AVIATION MAINTENANCE MAGAZINE #4, July 19, 2020, at 48.
- J Dickstein, Correlating Risk Consequence and Likelihood (SMS Part Four), 39 AVIATION MAINTENANCE MAGAZINE #5, Autumn/Fall 2020 at 48.
- J Dickstein, Legal Matters: Safety Compliance, MRO MANAGEMENT MAGAZINE, December 2020 at 14.
- J Dickstein, SMS Part 6: Strategies for Identifying and Selecting Risk Controls, Aviation Maintenance Magazine, Summer 2021 at 46.
- J Dickstein, SMS Part 7: Using the Hazard Log to Support Change Management, Aviation Maintenance Magazine, Autumn 2021.
- J Dickstein, Legal Matters: Safety Management Systems: Learn, Implement, Succeed!, MRO MANAGEMENT MAGAZINE, March 2022 at 18.
- J Dickstein, Legal Matters: Setting Safety Policy and Indentifying Effective Safety Performance Indicators, MRO MANAGEMENT MAGAZINE, April 2022 at 16.
- J Dickstein, Legal Matters: Setting Safety Goals, MRO MANAGEMENT MAGAZINE, May/June 2022 at 14.
- J Dickstein, Safety Management Systems – The Proposed Rule is Around the Corner, Aviation Maintenance Magazine, Summer 2022 at 56.
- J Dickstein, The FAA Issues its Safety Management Proposal, Aviation Maintenance Magazine, Winter 2022/23 at 40.
- R Aggargaard, The New FAA SMS Proposed Rule is Here: So, about those MROs…, MRO MANAGEMENT MAGAZINE, January/February 2023 at 14.
- J Dickstein, EASA to Require SMS in the US, MRO MANAGEMENT MAGAZINE, April 2024
Several presentations regarding adoption of a voluntary SMS program have been delivered at previous MARPA events:
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