A safety management system (SMS) is an organised approach to managing safety. It is a systematic, precise and proactive 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 organisation. It becomes part of the culture; the way people do their jobs.

An effective SMS allows the hazards and risks that could affect your organisation to be identified, assessed and prioritised so that mitigation measures can be put in place to reduce the risk. What a safety management system is – practically Managing safety is really about managing safety risk, which means trying to prevent bad things from happening, or if something does go wrong, or slips through the cracks, trying to minimize the consequences of the event.

Safety management is about accepting that things will go wrong and about reactively, proactively and predictively controlling risks to a level that is acceptable. It can help you predict potential risks, take appropriate action and measure how well risk controls are working. It can give you the business information you would want to manage risks in other areas such as finance or productivity.

What a safety management system isn’t – practically A safety management system is not the same as operations in the past. That is, your main game will still be operating a business; but the SMS does provide an underpinning structure which enables you to manage risks in your operation and, when implemented effectively, improve the effectiveness of your operation. Safety management systems are not Quality Management Systems (QMS), although they do share many of the same features and capabilities; such as performance targets, reporting, governance and performance monitoring. The objective of a QMS is the control of processes to achieve predictable and desirable results that meet with the customer’s and organization’s requirements. However, the objective of an SMS is to control operational risks, and to provide an improving safety record.

If you have a functioning QMS then your staff will already be familiar with reporting and feedback and, most importantly, they’ll already be on their way to an effective reporting and safety culture – which is vital to the implementation and sustainability of your SMS. Finally, the SMS is not a manual, a database, or a reporting process; these are all tools.

The SMS lives in the DNA of your organisation. It penetrates into the operation’s processes and activities and it shapes critical management thinking.

The SMS is a vital management capability where the staff are the eyes and ears, the safety group is the heart and management is the decision making ‘brain’ of the system. An effective safety management system provides many potential benefits, including: The ability to control the potential risky operations faced by the business A clear and documented approach to achieving safe operations that can be explained to others Active involvement of staff in safety Demonstrable control for the regulator, your customers and other stakeholders that your risks are under control Building a positive safety culture Reduction or removal of operational inefficiencies Decreased insurance costs and improved reputation A common language to establish safety objectives and targets and implement and monitor safety risk controls Potential defence from legal action.

Effectively, SMS represents a continued evolution in safety. Create a positive safety culture Ultimately, the success of an SMS hinges on the development of a positive safety culture which promotes open reporting through non-punitive disciplinary policies and continual improvement through proactive safety assessments and quality assurance. This will be achieved by the implementation and continuing support of an SMS based on cohesive policies and procedures. Creating a positive safety culture will also help identify what is really going on in your organization, and help you understand your risks. A positive safety culture is the embodiment of effective programs, decision making and accountability at all levels. Safety culture, first and foremost is about how managerial decisions are made, about the incentives and disincentives within an organization for promoting safety.

There is often a great gap between what senior management believe to be the safety culture of an organization and what is actually going on. Providing the appropriate resources SMS can, when mature, significantly improve the efficiency of your operation, potentially saving you time and money – although this is an indirect benefit rather that a stated aim. The safety management system does need resources to function effectively.

You can be involved – and most effective – in your SMS by providing appropriate resources, such as: appropriate number of competent safety people, training, funding risk mitigations, facilities, communications and publicity.

Ocean Time Marine has developed a Safety Management System (SMS) Software / Template and various other tools to assist commercial vessel operators in writing a SMS.