Category Archives: Safety Management

Annex 19 – The Next Steps in Proactive Safety Management

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Annex 19 – The Next Steps in Proactive Safety Management

By Danielle Kelly

Sextant Readings Solutions - SMS ICAO Annex 19For the first time in 30 years, ICAO are set to release a new Annex – Annex 19 – that pulls together current safety management practices and future expectations for facilitating safety risks that exist in our lands and skies.

The Annex looks to promote and enhance the alignment between the state and service providers and operators, which in my opinion should be welcomed and can only be a positive thing. Sharing and learning from each other is good, it’s what we are taught as kids and is something we would do well to remember as adults. ICAO have provided us with Annex after Annex of standards and regulations depicting how things should be done in the industry, with lots of references to safety for operation of aircraft, air traffic services, aerodromes, and airworthiness. This new Annex brings together all of these different provisions to further embed safety oversight and systemic risk sharing, but shouldn’t we be doing this already anyway?

There is a lot of emphasis on the management of safety risks, focusing on what we don’t want to happen, and on the sharing of information. However, how worthwhile the sharing of information actually is depends on what is done with it. ICAO appear to be providing an answer to bridging the gap between simply being aware of other industry incidents and proactively managing and implementing further mitigation strategies to prevent the same thing from occurring on our own watch. But why has it taken a new Annex to be published for us to do this, shouldn’t this be something we should be doing as part of working practice? How do organizations learn and share?

It seems ICAO have produced this Annex to show that it is no longer acceptable just to Prevent, Detect and Respond; we need to be able to learn and share information, particularly as the demand for air travel increases. To that end, ICAO has offered greater support for the next generation of safety management systems. The co-ordination effort being established between State Safety Programs (SSP) and the SMS provides an opportunity to improve the performance of the existing SMS to meet state safety policies and objectives, state safety risk management, assurance and promotion.

Like I said before, we can no longer be seen just to be preventing, detecting and responding to occurrences. Learning isn’t just about reporting, understanding, implementing and then backtracking; it’s much more than that – learning is the sharing of knowledge and information, so let’s get more information about our controls instead of the outcomes.  How about we manage the precursor and build our resilience?

Now, it’s all very well saying this but how do we actually achieve it?

Well, we need to start somewhere…so how about our controls? Do we have confidence in our controls?  If not, why not? And what do we do about it to make sure we are confident in the controls in place?

Yes, States play a role to establish and prescribe a State Safety Program in order for us to achieve an acceptable level of safety. However, it is up to the service providers and operators who fundamentally need to demonstrate and actively manage risk and the effectiveness of mitigation strategies through their own Safety Management Systems.

So, where do we go with Annex 19?

Well, we have to make time to look at what we’ve got; we know an SMS will give us the means to do everything we need to do and to be able do them effectively in terms of manage hazards and associated risks, log incidents and occurrences to be able to report on performance. There will no doubt be policies and procedures with associated workflows that are required to be followed to ensure the investigation is appropriately dealt with.

With Annex 19, we need more than this. We need a platform to not only do all the things we need to do, but also all the things we want to do; such as anticipating and predicting, strengthening our position and giving us confidence in our controls. Because if we’re not doing that…well…in the eyes of Annex 19…are we doing it wrong?

How does your SMS measure up against the new Annex 19 recommendations?

Sextant Readings Presentation on SlideShare has been viewed over 1,750 times

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The Sextant Readings presentation – 8 Steps to an Efficient SMS – has been viewed over 1750 times on SlideShare.

Positioning the “8 steps to an efficient SMS” is intended to clarify some of the mis-information about Safety Management that is rife on the internet.  There is a lot of hype about SMS – usually focused on the particular strengths of a vendor’s offering.

However we view Safety Management in the context that safety is a direct result of  “A management system based on professionalism and safety principles” of an organization.  There are many ‘pieces’ of management system support in the offerings from so-called Safety Professionals.

At Sextant Readings we believe that supporting the management of an organization based on the principles of professionalism and safety is our business.  You can see the presentation here:


IS-BAO Audit Capabilities

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Our IS-BAO Audit team consisting of Sextant Readings Solutions registered auditors and those of our business partner Mentair Group.  Mentair Group has been actively involved with IS-BAO since its inception, and has a great deal of experience in Stage I, II, and III recurring audits.  Together with Sextant Readings Solutions experienced auditor team, we offer you experience, knowledge and guidance that are commensurate with your new or mature SMS environment.

Services Offered

Audits

  • IS-BAO Audits
  • Regulatory Compliance Audits
  • Internal Evaluations
  • Quality Assurance Audits
  • Safety Assurance Audits
  • Gap Analysis for SMS Standards, IS-BAO, ACSF or FAA requirements for Part 121
  • Third Party Audits
  • Audits of Client’s vendors
  • Repair Station / MRO (CFR Part 145)
  • Fueling operations
  • Ground handling (FBO)

 Training and Education

  • Safety Management Systems for Executives
  • Safety Management Systems Practical Concepts
  • Safety Manager Training
  • Quality Auditor Training (Initial and Lead)
  • Internal Audit Program Development
  • Safety/Quality Manager Development

Implementation Services

  • Safety Management System (SMS)
  • Quality Management System (QMS)
  • Continuing Analysis Surveillance System (CASS)
  • Internal Evaluation Program (IEP)
  • Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP)

Finland’s transport regulator increases efficiency and improves reporting times to ECCAIRS

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Finland’s transport regulator increases efficiency and improves reporting times to ECCAIRS

TraFiThe Traffic Analysis department of the Finnish Transport Safety Agency (TraFi) is involved in the collection and analysis of safety and environment information regarding Finland’s transport system. As part of their reporting obligations, the regulator is required to submit both accident and incident reports to the European Co-ordination Centre for Accident and Incident Reporting Systems (ECCAIRS).

However, cialis after recording high and continuously increasing aviation occurrence reports, mainly down to their limited resources, the regulator identified a need to increase the efficiency of their occurrence management process, improving reporting times to ECCAIRS.

Ossi Kasurinen, TraFi’s Safety Information Adviser, said: “Saving occurrence reports manually into ECCAIRS database requires a lot of work and was extremely labor intensive at times, especially as we have limited resource in which to do it. We required a solution that would help us to streamline our occurrence report management process as well as feed the ECCAIRS database more efficiently.”

TraFi develops safety of the transport system across Finland, promoting environmentally friendly transport solutions. It is responsible for transport system regulatory duties across the four main transport sectors of air, rail, land and sea, and so it was crucial they found a solution which would improve their occurrence management and analysis processes.

With Ideagen Gael’s Q-Pulse solution, TraFi benefit from a fully integrated safety occurrence reporting and incident management solution, allowing their aviation community to raise occurrences in multiple formats before being processed directly into Q-Pulse.

The regulator also use Q-Pulse for their safety data management and enjoy seamless and automated integration with the ECCAIRS database which has streamlined their previous manual processes to provide more effective safety oversight of Finnish Civil and General Aviation.

Ossi added: “Q-Pulse is customizable and makes it possible to import and export data from and to other systems, cutting down the manual process dramatically. As our data is stored in Q-Pulse, we will be able to analyses it using the solution and, as the solutions is used by a few of our aviation customers, there may be possibilities that we can experience some synergy benefits in data transfer also.”

“Our Q-Pulse solution has completely taken over our day-to-day operations in regards to managing safety and environment information. As well as receiving multiple occurrence reports from varying systems, we can manage and classify these reports before easily exporting them into ECCAIRS. It has helped us improve overall occurrence management – and the solution’s analysis functionality will help us fulfill our duties despite the limited resources that we have.”

SMSLift from Sextant Readings Solutions

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“In a recent poll, the NBAA identified that the single largest challenge to implementing an effective SMS is employee participation.”

SMS LIFT Logo white
Convergent Performance’s SMS Lift program solves this challenge.

Convergent Performance’s SMS Lift program solves this challenge.
SMS Lift is a training solution designed by Convergent Performance, the industry leader in human factors training and performance improvement solutions, to address the largest challenge in SMS implementation that face flight departments today: employee engagement. This self-facilitated course is conducted at your
team’s own pace and contains all the components for small to medium flight departments to capitalize on the time you’ve already spent establishing your existing SMS.
SMS Lift is not an explanation of SMS; it is an easy to utilize program that removes the complexity of safety management systems and teaches the critical roles that individual employees play within the system. It will demonstrate to your entire staff their important roles and responsibilities and your department can realize the
many benefits that an optimized and well-implemented SMS provides.

SMS Lift Kit Contents_image

This cost-effective course is conducted in-house by your Safety Officer or designated trainer, and is either taught in a single day or split into four separate 2-hour blocks—whichever best suits your operation.

The SMS Lift boxed courseware program includes:
• Four- two hour lessons based on the pillars of SMS

  • ?? Safety Policy
  • ?? Safety Risk Management
  • ?? Safety Assurance
  • ?? Safety Promotion

• DVD that includes eight brief videos designed to facilitate learning
• Comprehensive resource library
• One step-by-step Instructor Guide to facilitate program implementation
• Ten Participant Handbooks
• Eleven Spheres of Safety Influence exercise forms
• SMS Lift Capture Form, in electronic and hard copy versions
The SMS Lift boxed collection includes enough class materials for 10 participants. Additional participant materials are available for purchase for larger class sizes.

For only $1499 (or $1359 for preferred aviation insurance carriers)
you can gain the benefits from your SMS you’ve been looking for.
Contact Convergent Performance today for more information or to “preview” the material.

Aviation Fatigue Risk Management integration with Jeppesen CrewAlert

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FRMS Integration

Fatigue has been cited as a contributing factor in aviation accidents. Therefore, a robust Safety Management System (SMS) must take fatigue into account. Capturing and analyzing data within the SMS provides tangible evidence to both airlines and pilots on the effect of fatigue.

An effective Fatigue Risk Management System (FRMS) will rely on a culture that encourages reporting of observed hazards during operations. Under this culture, the pilot will be comfortable feeding back information on their performance during a flight. The analysis of the data captured provides information to the airline operations department, allowing them to proactively manage the impact of fatigue and adjust their recommendations for flying hours and rest times. This analytical, proactive approach to fatigue risk management builds on the same principles as those applied to SMS.

Ideagen Gael have partnered with Jeppesen, (Press release) a unit of Boeing Flight Services, to provide airlines with a new automated solution to report crew fatigue. CrewAlert, an iPhone application built on the Boeing Alertness Model (BAM), has been designed to help airlines and their crews manage alertness and fatigue. Through the partnership, CrewAlert is able to automatically submit crew fatigue reports directly into Ideagen Gael’s Q-Pulse product. This co-ordination allows airlines to create safety reports that aid root cause analysis when working to reduce crew fatigue

Aviation Hazard, Occurrence and Incident Reporting and Investigation

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Safety is the biggest focus within aviation, as a failure to comply in a process or procedure can lead to a catastrophic effect. Worldwide governing bodies, including ICAO, IBAC and IATA, encourage and enforce any company associated with aviation to have an effective safety management solution in place. As the US moves through the SMS rulemaking effort, the FAA has provided guidance for operators including Air Carriers, MRO’s, Manufacturers, Flight Schools, Corporate, Charter and General Aviation.

Throughout industry, it is widely acknowledged that encouraging a non-punitive reporting culture, or “just culture”, is an effective way to ensure quality and safety related incidents are reported – in turn, helping to prevent future occurrences.

As with any module in Q-Pulse, Incident Reporting and Investigation can be configured to manage multiple types of reports. Reports can be automated to include areas such as Bird Strikes, TCAS RA, Airprox, Flight Crew Reports, Cabin Crew Reports, Ground Handling Reports, Confidential Reporting and Voluntary Reporting programs (ASAP, MSAP) and any other type of report required in order to manage safety effectively and efficiently.

Through the Q-Pulse Incident Reporting and Investigation module, established workflows can be defined for each individual report with individual/department notifications of actions required, timescales for completion and escalation policies. Q-Pulse seamlessly integrates with an organization’s email software, ensuring that all individuals concerned with an incident have full visibility of the progress of on-going actions.

Current reports within the organization can be set up with a user friendly report designer, providing a complete overview at any time of safety performance. Furthermore, management can analyze the aggregate incident/occurrence data to identify trends, highlight improvement opportunities and mitigate risks throughout the organization.

For airlines, Q-Pulse Incident Reporting and Investigation can integrate with Flight Data Management (FOQA) solutions allowing the safety department direct access to specific FOQA events that are pertinent to their investigations, streamlining processes and delivering corrective/preventative actions in a timely manner.

The objectives for Incident Reporting and Investigation are to:

  • Capture reported data that reflects an organization’s adherence to regulator’s procedures
  • Provide a simple and effective incident reporting design interface
  • Applies automatically on-going action tracking and communication that replicates a company’s existing workflow

Provides an effective, user friendly overview to aid trend analysis, highlight areas of improvement and manage

Aviation SMS and FOQA Integration

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Sextant Readings recognizes that within the aviation industry there are many IT suppliers that provide systems to manage the day to day running of the organization. While Sextant Readings specializes in compliance, safety and quality software, there are also other IT suppliers that have synergies to allow Q-Pulse to effectively manage the data integrated from these systems to manage both quality and safety. Through integration, Sextant Readings’s approach is to create a holistic view of safety and in turn allow the organization to have a full understanding of areas of concern which can be identified for improvement.

FOQA integration is an extension of Q-Pulse that provides a two-way interface between Flight Operational Quality Assurance (FOQA) analysis through Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) solutions and the Safety Management System (SMS), which in turn streamlines the incident investigation process. Flight safety data can be centralized and at the same time improve visibility and accessibility throughout an organization.

Q-Pulse FOQA Integration encourages the reporting and subsequent investigation of events where operational parameters have been exceeded. Through the incidents being reported and investigated, corrective or preventative action can be taken to mitigate risks and in turn improve safety levels.

The FOQA data is instantly accessible from the SMS, allowing quick access to events related to an investigation, which in turn saves time and promotes corrective actions to be implemented more quickly.

Q-Pulse FDM Integration allows full analysis of related incidents and in turn can provide a review of associated incidents and enable the identification of trends, leading to improved safety levels and increased efficiency performance.
Ideagen Gael is partnered with three major FOQA solution suppliers:

  • Aerobytes
  • Flight Data Services
  • Sagem

Ideagen Gael is constantly working with other vendors to increase the scope of Q-Pulse FOQA Integration.

The objectives of FOQA Integration are to:

  • Encourage reporting and investigation of events where operational parameters have been exceeded
  • Improve safety levels and mitigate risk
  • Improve efficiency in the process of safety management
  • Identify trends for analysis and identify changes in processes and procedures where necessary

Aviation Safety Data Sharing Integration with Q-Pulse

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ASIAS (Aviation Safety Information Sharing and Analysis System) supported by the FAA and STEADES (Safety Trend Evaluation and Analysis Data Exchange System) provided by IATA and are aviation safety incident data management and analysis programs.

  • ASIAS combines data from a number of sources, including Flight Operations Quality Assurance programs (FOQA), Aviation Safety Action Programs (ASAP), the Aviation Safety Reporting System, the Air Traffic Safety Action Program for air traffic controllers, the national offload program, radar track data and data from ASDE-X.
  • The STEADES database provides the world’s largest database of de-identified airline incident reports, providing a secure environment for airlines to pool safety information for global benchmarking and analysis needs.

Both provide data on key safety performance indicators, helping airlines to benchmark and establish safety performance targets.

Operator data is made available to ASIAS using Application Program Interface (API) capability of Q-Pulse. STEADES integration with Q-Pulse allows customers to provide their data to IATA directly, securely and with confidence to contribute to the powerful analysis tool that IATA provides.

The objectives of STEADES integration is to:

  • Simplify the process for Ideagen Gael’s customers to provide data in a format required by regulators
  • Ensure data is communicated in a secure and confidential manner
  • Provides Ideagen Gael’s customers with the ability to contribute to the appropriate program with minimal effort.

Aviation Safety, Quality and Risk Management, ISO, OSHA, TSA, EPA, FAA, IS-BAO, IOSA, EASA

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