Course work A Quality Management for Airline Operations (by John Davou), City University London.
Quality and Safety. Two sides of the same medal?
Quality and Safety are two commonly used terms generally in various industries and particularly the aviation industry. For a comprehensive comparison between Quality and Safety, the first step would be to outline the basic dictionary definitions which are most relevant.
Quality is defined as:
The standard of something as measured against other things of similar kinds
The degree of excellence of something
General excellence of standard or level
Safety is defined as:
The quality of averting or not causing injury, danger, or loss
The state of being safe; freedom from the
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ISO 9001 however requires top management to establish responsibilities and authorities within the company, including establishment of an ISO 9000 management representative from within the company.
Safety Management Systems SMS
Safety Management System (SMS) is a term used to refer to a comprehensive business management system designed to manage occupational safety and health elements in the workplace.[2]
A Safety Management System provides a systematic way to identify hazards and control risks while maintaining assurance that these risk controls are effective.[3] SMS can be defined as:
"a businesslike approach to safety. It is a systematic, explicit and comprehensive process for managing safety risks. As with all management systems, a safety management system provides for goal setting, planning, and measuring performance. A safety management system is woven into the fabric of an organization. It becomes part of the culture, the way people do their jobs".[4]
There are three imperatives for adopting a safety management system for a business - these are ethical, legal and financial. There is an implied moral obligation placed on an employer to ensure that work activities and the place of work to be safe, there are legislative requirements defined in just about every jurisdiction on how this is to be achieved and there is a substantial
Employers, managers and supervisors should all ensure that workplace practices reflect the risk assessment and safety statement. Behavior, the way in which everyone works, must reflect the safe working practices laid down in these documents. Supervisory checks and audits should be carried out to determine how well the aims set down are being achieved. Corrective action should be taken when required. Additionally, if a workplace is provided for use by others. The safety statement must also set out the safe work practices that are relevant to them. Hence, it is
Employers have an obligation to provide safe working conditions. Workplace safety and risk management specialists from the HR area manage compliance with U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations through maintaining accurate work logs and records, and developing programs that reduce the number of workplace injuries and fatalities. Workplace safety specialists also engage employees in promoting awareness and safe handling of dangerous equipment and hazardous chemicals.
The introduction of company policies and procedures has reduced the overall costs to the businesses. The introduction of safety procedures reduced injuries to staff making it so they had less time off increasing production. Enforcing a maintenance procedure meant the equipment breaks down less also reducing risks of injuries to staff and increasing production. Having set procedures also takes the thinking out of the hands of the staff everyone is treated the same and everyone knows what is required of them, and who to seek out when there is an issue. Companies have the primary duty of care to ensure staff are working in a workplace that doesn’t pose a risk to the health and safety of staff. A WHS management plan informs the relevant individuals
An Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS) is a planned, documented and verifiable method of managing workplace hazards and their associated risks (Pillay, 2016). An OHSMS provides a structure that allows an organisation to identify and control health and safety risks within the organisation. The implementation of such structures promotes a safe and healthy working environment which, in turn, will reduce the potential for accidents in the workplace whilst aiding legislative compliance and improving the overall performance of the organisation. Comparing and contrasting OHSMSs through the analysis of available literature allows one to determine the most appropriate management system for their organisation.
Safety is the state of being safe and free from occurrence of injury, danger or loss.
According to Freeney & Murphy ( 2013) risk management is a process of risk identification, response development, risk evaluation, continuous observing and appraisal in order to reduce the risk of injury to patients, staff and visitors. Risk has been defined as “the chance of something happening that will have an impact on the achievement of organisational stated objectives,” HSE (2008) or “the effect of uncertainty on the objectives” ISO 31000 : 2009.
It is important it have a written work Health and Safety Policy for the organizations and businesses which have management systems. The Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 addresses Major Hazard Facilities in Regulation 558 and Schedule 17(1.2) and requires that the Safety Management System includes a Safety Policy, including the operator’s broad aims in relation to the safe operation of the major hazard facility, and that the safety policy must include and express commitment to ongoing improvement of all aspects of the safety management system. A Work Health and Safety Policy is an explicit statement of business commitment to work health and safety. It will include a statement outlining the importance which is placed on work health and safety and how it is to be implemented.
The service has in place a safety/support risk management plan that identifies control measures to eliminate or respond to identified risk. This is called the needs and safety/support plan. There is a clear link between the risk assessment and the safety plan. The safety/support plan incorporates SMART objectives under the five outcomes which are clearly understood by the service user as landmark towards achieving outcomes.
Risk management is the term applied to a logical and systematic method of establishing the context, identifying, analyzing, evaluating, treating, monitoring and communicating risks associated with any activity, function or process in a way that will enable organizations to minimize losses and maximize opportunities. (Lecture notes)Risk Management is also described as 'all the things you need to do to make the future sufficiently certain'. (The NZ Society for Risk Management, 2001)
Risk Management: The department that is responsible for overseeing health care centers and working to prevent occupational hazards is called Risk Management. This can be a group of designated people assigned to predict and prevent workplace incidents, or in the form of a program designed to minimize the impact of accidents, inhibit the spread of infectious pathogens, and prevent death.
Risk management is the attempt to reduce risk by the process of identifying risks, the threats and vulnerabilities associated with them and their consequences, then analyzing and assessing them, and then, communicating that risk to the public. It continues with efforts to minimize these risks through various methods of avoidance, transfer,
Safety: Taking proactive approaches to identify/prevent safety issues and take immediate action when a safety issue is identified.
The term safety is most commonly associated with physical safety. While this is true, system administrators must consider other types of safety measures that include both logical safety, and physical safety. Logical safety is arguably one of the most important factors for a system administrator to consider.
Putting in the work for an efficient and well-structured aviation safety program is well worth the cost of and risk the aviation industry may face. Risks has its costs, they are increasing with time and the aviation industry is paying for it. “Aviation safety is pretty much a people problem. The machinery we use is really pretty good, the problem is the way we use the airplane—a people problem” (Aviation Safety Programs a Management Handbook, 1976). This quote derived from a book from over forty years ago today, recognizes the need for a system to be put into play in order to help minimize this ‘people problem’. That system today is Safety Management Systems. “A systematic and explicit approach defining the activities by which safety management is undertaken by an organization in order to achieve acceptable or tolerable safety. The objective of a Safety Management System is to provide a structured management approach to control safety risks in operations. Effective safety management must take into account the organization’s specific structures and processes related to safety of operations.” (Skybary, 2016). The objective speaks for itself, it gives and organization control on issues that once seemed uncontrollable or even variable. Safety Management Systems provide and will continue to contribute to the assessment and hopeful elimination of most risks. The system’s four pillars explain the
Many organisations across the world claim that certain quality programs, such as the ISO 9001, improve management practices whilst also improving workers safety and elimination of hazardous practices5.