SMS SUBPART D – SAFETY ASSURANCE

Safety Performance Monitoring and Measurement

• The certificate holder must develop and maintain processes and systems to acquire data on its operations, products, and services to monitor safety performance.
• These processes and systems must include:
  • Continuous monitoring of operational processes
  • Periodic monitoring of the operational environment to detect changes
  • Auditing of operational processes and systems
  • Evaluations of the SMS and operational processes and systems
  • Investigations of incidents and accidents
  • Investigations of reports regarding potential noncompliance with regulatory standards or safety risk controls
  • A confidential employee reporting system for reporting hazards, errors, safety concerns, and incidents

Safety Performance Assessment

• The certificate holder must conduct assessments of its safety performance against its safety objectives.
• These assessments must:
  • Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and safety risk controls
  • Evaluate the performance of the SMS
  • Identify ineffective controls and new hazards
  • Evaluate the effectiveness of safety risk controls
  • Identify changes in the operational environment that may introduce new hazards
  • Identify potential new hazards or safety issues and concerns
• If ineffective controls, new hazards, or potential hazards are identified, the certificate holder must use the safety risk management process.

Safety Objectives

• Safety objectives must be established with high and low consequence safety performance indicators, targets, and alert levels.
• These indicators, targets, and alert levels must reflect an acceptable level of safety performance and provide for advance warning of adverse trends.

Management of Change

• The certificate holder must develop and maintain a process to identify changes that may affect the level of safety risk.
• The process must identify and manage safety risks that may arise from these changes.

Continuous Improvement

• The certificate holder must establish and implement processes to correct substandard safety performance.
• The certificate holder must monitor and assess its SMS processes to maintain or continuously improve the overall effectiveness of the SMS.

This quiz covers the processes and systems required to monitor and measure the safety performance of an organization, including continuous monitoring, periodic monitoring, and auditing.