SSPSMS AND THE ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION PROCESS .1 INTEGRATION OF MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS .1

Chapter 7. Introduction to Safety Management Systems SMS 7-11 7.7 SSPSMS AND THE ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION PROCESS 7.7.1 As with the relationship between SMS and QMS, the relationship between the SSP or the SMS, and the accident investigation process and the role that the accident investigation process plays under a safety management environment, has been a matter of discussion within the safety community. While discussions have mostly focused on the relationship between the SMS and the accident investigation process, the SSP must unquestionably be part of the discussion. Just like the relationship between SMS and QMS, it can never be stated emphatically enough that the relationship between the SSPSMS and the accident investigation process is one of absolute complementarity and synergy. Accident investigation is an essential tool of the safety management process. 7.7.2 Under the safety management process, the daily activities involved in managing safety as yet another organizational process, as discussed in Chapter 3, are delivered by the SSP or the organizations SMS. An accident or serious incident represents the ultimate failure of the SSP or the SMS or both, as the managerial systems guiding the activities necessary for managing safety in a State or in an organization respectively. When such ultimate failure occurs, the accident investigation process is set in motion to find out the reasons for the failure of the safety management activities, and to generate the necessary countermeasures so failure is not repeated. Thus, in a safety management environment, the accident investigation process has a distinct role. It is the ultimate custodian of safety in the aviation system, which deploys when all safety defences, barriers, checks and counterbalances in the system have failed. 7.8 INTEGRATION OF MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS 7.8.1 Aviation organizations are oftentimes described as “a system of systems”. This is because aviation organizations must develop, implement and operate a number of different management systems to achieve their production goals through the delivery of services. Typical management systems an aviation organization might need to operate include: a quality management system QMS; b environment management system EMS; c occupational health and safety management system OHSMS; d safety management system SMS; and e security management system SEMS. 7.8.2 There is a developing tendency in civil aviation to integrate all these different management systems. There are clear benefits to such integration: a reduction of duplication and therefore of costs; b reduction of overall organizational risks and an increase in profitability; c balance of potentially conflicting objectives; d elimination of potentially conflicting responsibilities and relationships; and e diffusion of power systems. 7-12 Safety Management Manual SMM 7.8.3 However, there are different ways to integrate all these systems and, in particular, to integrate SMS with other management systems in the organization. Aviation organizations should be encouraged to integrate their quality, safety, security, occupational health and safety, and environmental protection management systems. This integration, however, is presently beyond the scope of the harmonized ICAO safety management SARPs and of this manual.

7.9 CLARIFYING TERMS