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Quality and Safety Two Sides of the Same Medal

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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 …show more content…

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

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