Resilience Delivered Via Safety Management Systems

Airports are extremely fast-paced places, with environmental changes that can lead to a series of incidents and accidents. Many factors come into play, including complexity and safety decision-making. Though initially geared toward safety management, these factors can become a reason why accidents and failures occur. If your safety protocol isn’t being consistently updated to reflect new, real-time data, your organization is exposed to potential hazards that can impact the resilience of your airport. Operational resilience refers to your organization’s ability to prioritize safety management, primarily during periods when your environment is rapidly changing.

SMS As a Vital Tool for Business Continuity

There’s never a shortage of unexpected events that can cause your organization to continuously adapt. You may not have documented procedures yet for events that are to transpire in your near future. However, an SMS positions you into a proactive and predictive state so that when situations like these arise, you are fully equipped to handle them with resilience. An SMS bolsters your organization and allows you to maintain required operations even under the pressure of unforeseen conditions. When it comes to unpredictable events, the potential for hazards and other severe consequences is great. Without safeguarding your organization with intelligent software for safety management, there are too many single points of failure to support resiliency.

Although proactivity takes an important role when employing an SMS in your organization, it does not cover sudden events. You can use the reports and trends identified by an SMS to be proactive, but to be resilient, you need to be constantly optimizing your safety protocols and procedures. Even when safety has been compromised, your organization must be well equipped to tackle the issue with speed, efficiency, and accuracy. With a fast response time to unanticipated events, you avoid a domino effect that could continue to pose severe consequences to your organization. An SMS allows you to optimize the performance of all team members at all levels of your organization. With knowledge sharing across different facets, you create an environment that offers reciprocal support.

Harnessing the Power of Reliable Data

To reduce organizational vulnerabilities, you must have clearly developed solutions with implemented measures for both predictable events and those that occur unexpectedly. Adaptability positions you to create a resilient culture, and an SMS allows you to create a standardized safety protocol that is disseminated to your entire workforce. With core values, attitudes, and behaviors that prioritize safety, your entire organization is working synergistically to produce a common outcome. This formal structure that identifies both the roles and responsibilities of your personnel empowers your organization to adapt their behavior to real-time events.

The data an SMS receives and delivers provides you with a clear trail of relevant risks, potential threats, and potential undesirable events that pose a concern for unanticipated safety risks. By harnessing the power of reliable data, you position yourself on the proactive and predictive phases of operations, which reduces the number of reactive safety decisions you must make. When the pressure is high and unexpected events are swirling around you, an SMS that translates data input into usable safety strategies enables you to respond quickly, with little to no time wasted seeking answers.

Operational Resilience as a Foundation for Growth

Resilience in the aviation industry pertains not just to fast recovery times but can also be used as a foundation for your organization’s growth. Surely, resistance to unexpected events creates a stronger organization overall, but operational resilience also equips your organization with the breathing room it needs to grow following recovery. The COVID-19 global pandemic heavily impacted the aviation industry and exposed the many vulnerabilities existing in current operating models. When you prioritize operational resilience with the use of an SMS, you can contribute to the survival of your organization, despite how many unanticipated events it faces in the future.

Re-imagination of your operational strategy starts with a robust SMS. Future-proof strategies based on reliable data empower your organization to demonstrate resilience and focus on business continuity, no matter what happens. An SMS allows you to incorporate diversity in responses. The vast collection of data from different levels of your organization provides you with a broadened view of hazards, so you can make the most well-informed decision toward correction and progress. 

If you still have not employed an SMS into your aviation operations, now is the time. Schedule your free 60-day trial with Aerosimple to explore the features that promote operational resilience for your organization.