First, Safety Management System (SMS) is directly related to the provision of safety to the staff that is largely founded on the adherence to and advocating of the established standards by the personnel themselves. Hence, the human factor will be integrated by the related activities of your workers who – to an exact extent – will be responsible for the implementation of SMS. The crucial point here is that SMS cannot operate appropriately without the due diligence of your employees.
Second, an SMS program cannot be brought into life properly if it functions only at the exact departments of your aviation company. In aviation, all the departments are intersected and interconnected; thus, if there is the absence of SMS at one of them, there is the absence of SMS at the others (Britton, 2018). As stated above, human factors integration is vital for SMS, and given such unity within aviation companies’ structure, the entire organization should receive human factors training.
Third, managers are required to be involved in human factors training. Your managers will be a crucial element of one of the four pillars of SMS – safety risk management (SMS Pro, n.d.). They need to demonstrate an in-depth understanding of human factors and related issues because the responsibility to evaluate risks and provide possible solutions lies with them.
Fourth, the concept of SMS might be considered broader than the traditional notion of risk management. SMS includes four primary components, or pillars – safety policy, safety risk management, safety assurance, and safety promotion (SMS Pro, n.d.). It seems apparent that risk management is the integrated element of SMS; however, it still requires substantial effort, knowledge, and experience to be implemented appropriately and expediently.
References
Britton, T. (2018). 3 most important human factors in aviation SMS – they’ll surprise you. SMS Pro.
SMS Pro. (n.d.). Definition of aviation safety management system.