Safety Player

A SMS provides a systematic way to identify hazards and control risks while maintaining assurance that these risk controls are effective 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.

For the purposes of defining safety management, safety can be defined as:


... the reduction of risk to a level that is as low as is reasonably practicable.

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 body of research which shows that effective safety management (which is the reduction of risk in the workplace) can reduce the financial exposure of an organisation by reducing direct and indirect costs associated with accident and incidents.

To address these three important elements, an effective SMS should:
Define how the organisation is set up to manage risk.
Identify workplace risk and implement suitable controls.
Implement effective communications across all levels of the organisation.
Implement a process to identify and correct non-conformities.
Implement a continual improvement process.

A safety management system can be created to fit any business type and/or industry sector.

Basic safety-management components

International Labour Organization SMS model

Since there are many models to choose from to outline the basic components of a safety management system, the one chosen here is the international standard promoted by the International Labour Organization (ILO). In the ILO document ILO-OSH 2001 Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems, the safety management basic components are:
Policy
Organizing
Planning and implementation
Evaluation
Action for improvement

Although other SMS models use different terminology, the process and workflow for safety management systems are usually similar;
1.Policy – Establish within policy statements what the requirements are for the organization in terms of resources, defining management commitment and defining OSH targets
2.Organizing – How is the organization structured, where are responsibilities and accountabilities defined, who reports to who and who is responsible for what.
3.Planning and Implementation – What legislation and standards apply to our organization, what OSH objectives are defined and how are these reviews, hazard prevention and the assessment and management of risk.
4.Evaluation – How is OSH performance measured and assessed, what are the processes for the reporting of accidents and incidents and for the investigation of accidents and what internal and external audit processes are in place to review the system.
5.Action for Improvement – How are preventative and corrective actions managed and what processes are in place to ensure the continual improvement process. There is a significant amount of detail within each of these sections and these should be examined in detail from the ILO-OSH Guidelines document.

Safety Stack | Safety Management System Framework Project Model[edit]

Since most of the SMS solutions in the U.S. are specifically designed for the aviation industry; non-aviation independent projects are underway such as The Safety Stack | Safety Management System Framework Project, which was developed originally as an open source project that aids small businesses and organizations establish a base SMS framework. Frameworks such as this are designed to improve the way practitioners manage occupational safety & health and assist in complying with ever increasing safety & health regulatory standards. The Safety Stack SMS "Framework" is composed of the following key elements:
Safety Administration
Safety Policy, Programs, Procedures Manual
Safety Orientation
Safety Training
Safety Meetings
Safety Inspections
Safety Incidents
Safety Standards
Safety Handbook
Safety Miscellaneous

Non-aviation industry organizations in the U.S. find this open source, general purpose, SMS framework highly useful in the development of their own unique safety management systems since it can be downloaded, edited, extended & used freely.