Safety Management System (SMS) is a collection of structured, company-wide processes that provide effective risk-based decision-making for daily business functions. Safety Management Systems help organizations offer products or services at the highest level of safety and maintain safe operations.

Purpose of Safety Management Systems

The main purpose of a safety management system is to provide a systematic approach for managing safety risks in operations. SMS also aims to improve safety by building on existing processes, demonstrating corporate due diligence, and reinforcing overall safety culture. Effective safety management is crucial in continuing to operate and grow the business, especially in high-risk industries such as aviation, energy, maritime, and construction.

Before you dive into implementing a safety management system, make sure you know the basics.

All companies, regardless of size or industry, can benefit from implementing a safety management system (SMS). Starting the process is probably the most challenging aspect of a SMS, but if you're informed and plan well, company leaders can find ways to help their business transition to an improved way of managing safety.

What Should You Know Before You Begin A Safety Management System?

1. You probably have an informal SMS right now.

Part of your daily operations include OSHA compliance essentials such as safety policies, employee training and hazard assessments. These are also elements of safety management systems. But what may be lacking in your company is a formal, documented process to guide your safety program, which is what a SMS provides. For example, in companies without a dedicated SMS, each safety compliance element might function independently or without oversight. Worker training is provided, but employees may lack procedures to protect them from job-related hazards. Risks may be assessed, but without triaging of hazards or follow-up to ensure corrections. Improvements in safety may occur, but there aren’t metrics or plans to ensure continuous improvements. The safety management system ties up these loose ends and gives your company goals and structure for safety and health.

2. It may be difficult to align with other systems right out of the gate.

Integrating the SMS with other management system standards, such as ISO 9001 (quality) or ISO 14001 (environmental), or applying your SMS to OHSAS 18001 (health and safety), may be the ultimate company destination, but the journey isn’t always easy and it takes preparation.

While each system is designed to be compatible with the other, each covers different business risks. The purpose of OHSAS 18001 is to control safety and health risks, and to provide an outline for managing the company’s safety and health program, but it does not mandate the design of the management system. To create your SMS under OHSAS 18001 means relying on the availability and expertise of your employees to write the appropriate documentation, conduct analysis and develop other aspects of the system.

But relying on your team to develop your SMS begins with a deep understanding of OSHA standards, as well as risks associated with your industry and specific company. From that point, the SMS builds on existing processes. It’s difficult to create a system if you don’t understand the mechanics of each component. That may mean focusing on compliance and gaining knowledge of safety and health requirements, prior to jumping into integration with other systems.

3. Change is always painful. Expect it and plan accordingly.

Shifts in operations or structure can be unsettling for employees. Transitioning your safety program to a SMS represents a new and different way to operate. Under a SMS, everyone has a role in company safety. While implementation can be an exciting and positive change for your company, expect roadblocks and unforeseen pains as people learn new ways to view workplace safety and assume greater responsibilities.

You can minimize the barriers if you plan well and provide top-down leadership support. Showing how a SMS will benefit your company through training and awareness can help bring people on board, and increase success of your program.

The 4 Components And 12 Elements Of Safety Management System

SMS has four components in its framework which is often referred to as the Four Pillars of Safety Management System. As stated by the FAA, the 4 safety management system components are as follows:

• Safety Policy and Objectives
• Safety Risk Management
• Safety Assurance
• Safety Promotion

Each SMS component contains elements that describe specific needs for the successful implementation and maintenance of a safety management system. Originated from ICAO, the 12 safety management system elements are:

• Management Commitment
• Safety Accountability and Responsibilities
• Appointment of Key Safety Personnel
• Coordination of Emergency Response Planning
• SMS Documentation
• Hazard Identification
• Safety Risk Assessment and Mitigation
• Safety Performance Monitoring and Measurement
• Management of Change
• Continuous Improvement of the SMS
• Training and Education
• Safety Communication

SMS Component #1: Safety Policy and Objectives

Employers should make safety an integral part of company values, demonstrating their commitment daily. Specifically, top management needs to set safety goals as policy, while being visible and personally involved in meeting them. Safety accountability and responsibilities should be clearly defined such as the role of the leadership team to manage safety in the same way that they oversee other areas of the business and the duty of technical managers to assure the effectiveness of safety risk controls.

Once appointed safety personnel have been identified, documentation processes should also be determined because the safety management system will be reviewed periodically to ensure it remains relevant and appropriate to the organization. As the FAA Safety Team (FAASTeam) shared, SMS documentation may be a stand-alone manual or integrated into existing record-keeping procedures.

SMS Component #2: Safety Risk Management

In order to effectively control safety risks, designated staff should perform a series of interconnected processes collectively called Safety Risk Management (SRM). It generally focuses on anticipating and mitigating risks at the process level. Listed below are the 5 steps that go into the safety risk management component of SMS:

1. System Description and Task Analysis: As a system design function, system description and task analysis is used by a cross-functional team within the organization to state the facts about the activities and workplace conditions (equipment, environment, etc.) involved in their processes. Systems factors and attributes should also be considered such as procedures, process measures, and interfaces, among others.
2. Hazard Identification: Hazards are identified as deficient conditions impacting activities which can result in injury, illness, or death to people and/or system, equipment, or property damages or losses. It is important to note that a hazard is any real or potential condition, including typical hazardous conditions related to human error such as time pressure, shift turnovers, and lack of system knowledge.
3. Risk Analysis: Risks are derived from hazards based on the judgement of key safety personnel. Analyzing risk involves considering the likelihood and severity of adverse consequences. Since a single hazard can have multiple consequences, increased exposure to hazards can also make it more likely for grave consequences to recur. On the other hand, severity is mainly driven by the nature of the consequence itself.
4. Risk Assessment: To assist with decision-making, perform a risk assessment and establish whether a safety risk is acceptable or not. A risk matrix is used as a tool for evaluating the combined effects of likelihood and severity, prioritizing which safety risks to address in what sequence for adequate resource allocation. If deemed acceptable, the SRM component of SMS is complete and the risk moves to the next component for monitoring. Otherwise, risk controls should be put in place to mitigate or reduce the risk.
5. Risk Control: The safety management system element of risk control, also known as risk mitigation, enables the implementation of safety measures to safeguard people, property, or the environment. While the severity of risks may be lessened to a certain degree, decreasing their probability or likelihood is what happens in most situations. Risk controls applied to working conditions can be effective instruments of risk reduction and failure prevention.

SMS Component #3: Safety Assurance

Safety Assurance (SA) is the component of safety management system that deals with the monitoring of risk controls during operations. After strategically placing control measures, their performance and effectiveness should be assessed as well. Common SA functions include internal audits, investigations, and employee reporting systems. Particularly in aviation, operational data sources such as flight dispatch records, crew schedules, and aircraft discrepancy reports prove to be useful for the continuous monitoring of safety risk controls.

Upon gathering all necessary information, they should be analyzed against set objectives and compared with existing norms for patterns from multiple data points and trends over time. Oftentimes, safety risk controls fail due to lack of leadership, resources, and instruction. In whichever case, preventive and corrective actions should be taken—may it be increased supervision, equipment maintenance, remedial training, etc. Management review also plays a vital role in Safety Assurance, most especially, in the continuous improvement of the SMS.

SMS Component #4: Safety Promotion

Interchangeably used with Safety Culture, Safety Promotion is defined as the activities that support the SMS implementation in an organization such as training, knowledge-sharing, and communication. To promote safety as a company core value, employees should understand the safety management system, learn from shared experience, and develop awareness of hazards. Management should also be able to explain why particular actions are taken in order to consistently foster an environment for open reporting of safety concerns.