Safety Management System of Blue Coral Copter Caper - Term Paper Example

 Blue Coral Copter Caper Safety Assessment Report 1. Summary Blue Coral Copter Capers is a small aviation tour operator based in Hawaii and has managed to create a special name for itself in the local industry. The use of FAA (Federal Aviation Authority) based directives and standards are not very high in the company’s current operating scenario but FAA pressure is asking the company to do more. This report represents the major gaps present in the company’s current safety management system that can be upgraded to a SMS (Safety Management System) using simple techniques as well as management commitment. The need for a SMS for operations has been highlighted in line with the company’s overall aims and objectives. An assessment of the problems and their solutions have also been provided in the last part of the report to pursue practicable avenues at minimal costs to find fitting solutions. 2. Abstract Flying presents hazards that are inherently unique to the aviation industry alone. Often there is little room for error in the aviation industry so the practice of safety management must be up to date and in line with contemporary trends to satisfy governmental regulations. Smaller aviation operators are often not fully aware of various areas that represent safety issues during their routine operations so efforts must be directed to identify and mitigate risks and hazards. 3. Introduction A safety management system (SMS) refers to a set of comprehensive business management systems that are designed in order to manage various aspects of occupational health and safety issues within a workplace. The contention behind using a SMS is to manage the myriad aspects that often constitute the management of risks and hazards in a workplace. The SMS structure provides a logical and often a pervasive manner in which to deal with typical workplace situations to guarantee the safety of the personnel and the capital assets involved. SMS is often employed by businesses in order to track down and mitigate risks and hazards. The utilization of the SMS structure ensures that the identified risks and hazards are controlled in an effective manner (SASO, 2009). While other management practices could be employed to safety management but the greater chances are that such management would not be able to deal with the challenges of safety effectively. This may occur because safety presents myriad aspects that might need management and this may also occur because safety management requires investing large costs that organizations may not be willing to inculcate into their regular budgeting cycles because their short term effects may not be very visible (Evans & Parker, 2008). In other instances the use of safety management styles other than SMS may cause the workers to complain about curtailed workability and the ensuing complication after safety management styles are implemented. In contrast to other safety management practices and styles, a properly structured SMS ensures that a business friendly approach to safety management is taken. This ensures that safety management is a component of core business values and not the other way around when safety management overshadows operational practices. The SMS is often a well structured systematic, explicit and comprehensive process that is utilized in order to identify and manage risks. When compared to other management systems for other functions, a SMS provides for goal setting along with planning and measurement of performance. The implementation of the SMS is carried out in a manner that makes it an integral part of the fabric of the subject business organization. The SMS should become part of the company culture such that the SMS is taken as the natural and most obvious method of getting things done by employees (Transport Canada, 2009). The SMS also ensures that safety management is implemented such that risks and hazards are reduced to lower levels such that their management is more practicable and poses no serious threat to employees and other stake holders. The contention behind a SMS is not the elimination of risks and hazards because it is often not possible due to practical considerations such as workability, cost amongst others. Instead a SMS look at managing risks and hazards such that they are easier to manage for the people who are involved with these risks and hazards in one way or the other. 4. Reasons for Implementing a SMS Any typical business organization has three major reasons to implement a SMS which revolve more or less around the ethical, legal and financial implications of failure based on safety considerations. When the employer is considered in respect of the safety system, it is the employer’s responsibility to ensure that activities carried out in the workplace are safe such that they reduce the risks and hazards that the employees are subjected to (Dickstein, 2010). Other than these moral and ethical considerations, the other major strand of requirements spring from meeting the minimum legislative requirement of the subject jurisdiction. Almost every place in the world now houses comprehensive laws that demarcate safe work practices and techniques. It is up to the employer to ensure that these laws and provisions are followed religiously in order to protect the interests of the employee and in the longer run the interests of the involved stakeholders (Federal Register, 2010). Other than these considerations, there is significant research that proves that effective safety management tends to help out organizations significantly when it comes to financial woes. In case that the safety management systems are not in place, there are significant chances for accidents and incidents which means that the organization would have to deal with the clean up as well as any legal implications. This is often carried out through financial means as the courts often rule in favor of the affected parties who are granted compensation or other such benefits from the organization that is deemed responsible for the accidental damage and loss (SASO, 2010). The industrial realm is filled up with various example where the use of meek SMS or the absence of SMS cause single disasters that soiled the reputation and business of organizations beyond repair. Most notably is the case of the Zeppelin from the 1930’s whose crash after a fire on board killed all of the passengers and crews meant that the Zeppelin was dropped from public purview as a means of transport. Similarly the Bhopal incident claimed 20,000 lives and left hundreds of thousands stranded on the streets of Bhopal after a nerve agent leaked and caused havoc from a Union Carbide plant in the locality. As a result, Union Carbide was financially debilitated to an extent that it was eventually sold out and its affected plant was never allowed to resume operations to this day. In view of the arguments presented above, it is obvious that businesses small and large all require some form of SMS that deals with their base requirements to identify and manage risks associated with operations that fuel the business. This is all the more relevant for the aviation industry whose operations are dependent on a high level of safety that ensures that factors on ground and in the air are all under control. 5. Need for SMS in Flying and Aviation Like many other industries the aviation industry needs to employ stringent safety management systems because the core of operations are based largely on activities that are inherently unsafe and pose risks to all involved. Internationally the aviation industry has been at the forefront of SMS largely because there is a dire need to manage various kinds of risks and to lower the costs that are borne by the organization. Moreover safety ensures that the organization is able to avoid legal battles that result from safety based failures. Again the major considerations for the aviation industry too are ethical, legislative and financial in nature when it comes to SMS. When the ethical aspects of the aviation industry’s operations are looked into, it becomes clear that any unsafe operation has direct impacts for all involved stakeholders. The first level of stakeholders to be considered is the consumers. The aviation industry operator is responsible on an ethical scale to ensure that the passengers on board are protected and that their lives and property are not at any kinds of risks. Any hazards involved in flying must also be minimized by the aviation operator in order to fulfill ethical requirements for the customer. Similarly the crew operating the aircraft is also at risk when flying so the aviation operator must ensure that their lives are not at risk for any reason. Moreover the crew should be given chances to maintain a healthy work life balance to ensure that their actions do not endanger the aircraft and neither the passengers inside along with the cargo. The end level investors are also major stakeholders who stand to get affected in case anything goes wrong in an aviation operation. The biggest issue with aviation is the amount of damage that can come about as a result of a safety failure. While other vehicular technologies may stand to be scrapped and reused, there is hardly any chance for that with the aviation industry. An aircraft that crashes is hardly able to continue with repairs and often needs to be discarded. This kind of failure means that the organization stands to lose a large sum of money for a small operation that goes wrong. Moreover safety failures mean that the aviation operator may now be involved in length legal battles that often mean that the aviation operator loses large sums of money as claims for losses of life and property. Legal action may also mean that the aviation operator would have to ground their fleet or that the aviation operator would lose their privileges to operate the fleet anymore. Eventually a large legal battle may even mean that the aviation operator would have to shut down their business based on their bad safety records as evaluated by a legal committee or judge. In a similar manner, an aviation operator tends to lose a large amount of money and potential revenue just at the hands of unsafe operations. For one thing, the aviation operator stands to lose their reputation and mark their brand name in a negative light after an aircraft safety failure. This in itself means that the aviation operator tends to lose out on both current revenue and potential revenue in the form of clientele. The current permanent clientele would prefer to board aircraft that guarantee their safe return home while potential clientele would be dissuaded by bad safety records. In order to deal with these challenges, an aviation operator might have to use costly marketing tactics in order to attract the clientele again and they might need to lower costs to an extent that the company just breaks even in order to attract new clients. Keeping all of these constraints in view, it is pertinent to note that safety plays a major role to ensuring the success of any aviation operator no matter how large or small in size. 6. Implications for Blue Coral Copter Caper Blue Coral Copter Caper is a reputable aviation tour operator located in Hawaii and has a distinguished record of service. The large amount of flight hours and the low incidence rate indicate that most operations carried out by Blue Coral Copter Caper are safe though there is some need to use a SMS in order to simplify safety operations. Moreover safety has to be made a part of the organizational culture more strongly in order to renew the commitment to safety during all phases of the operation. Given the current circumstances there are some fundamental issues with the safety management being implemented in Blue Coral Copter Caper. However the issues being faced by Blue Coral Copter Caper can all be resolved with a little commitment from the top management. The restructuring of the current safety management styles will ensure that Blue Coral Copter Caper comes in line with the FAA’s regulations on safety management. This means that Blue Coral Copter Capers will be allowed to stay in business if and only if the organization reforms its current practices in safety. The tabulation of problems and their solutions have been carried out keeping in mind that a proficient SMS enables the management of risks and hazards in a business like fashion. The aspects of workability and associated costs have been used as the chief criteria to suggest a solution to problems confronting the current safety management structure. Each problem has been discussed along with the possible solution(s) in the text below. The composition of the pilots at Blue Coral Copter Capers is an eclectic mix that comprises of military aviators as well as former bar dancers. The differing backgrounds of the present pilots necessitate the presence of certification documents with the organization so that these may be presented to the FAA as and when required. The current document management system at Blue Coral Copter Capers is rather lax and does not account for insertion of records, their updating requirements and their appropriate screening measures. It is the organization’s responsibility to ensure that the pilots employed by it are properly certified and that these certifications and other relevant documents are available at all times in the organizational office. It is pertinent to note here that in order to implement an effective documentation management system it would be best to adopt practices from ISO (International Standards Organization) so that a proper quality management scheme can be implemented. This scheme will ensure seamless integration with other elements of the safety culture such as TNAs (Training Needs Assessment) as well as proficiency records and other relevant records. The implementation of an effective record management system would not drain the current resource pile but would need little else than the dedicated efforts of a member of the organization to steward these records. Another major issue that needs to be looked into is the current hiring procedure in use. Though there are not structural problems in the current hiring procedure but there is little record keeping to ensure that the hiring is up to the mark and merit required for commercial aviation. The current hiring procedure is centered on a test that allows the candidate to demonstrate their flying skills. While it is sufficient to see how well a person flies when it comes to aviation checks but a formal record will demonstrate what areas were tested when the pilot was hired. The only real resources required to implement such a scheme would be a dedicated form that would note various responses of the pilot in reaction to stimuli such as flying close to obstacles, keeping in close proximity of the beach etc. The proper filing of such records would ensure that the traceability increases as well as the credibility of the organization. Moreover the filing of such records would aid Blue Coral Copter Capers in dealing with audits put in place by the FAA to ensure that the proper kind of people are hired for sensitive jobs such as flying. The presence of testing records at hiring would also ensure that the reputation of Blue Coral Copter Capers is enhanced when it comes to evaluation by the FAA. Moreover in case that an accident occurs in the future, the organization would have proper records to prove that their pilot was not only properly certified but was also tested before hiring. In the longer run this could save the company a large amount of money that it would have to lose if it were proved that the employed pilot was not qualified and tested for the job. It is also common practice within the industry to continuously update the skill sets of the employees using testing. This ensures that the employees are up to date on any relevant standards, codes and procedures. The continuous testing and updating of individual skill sets tends to enhance the performance of employees and keep them in line with their own abilities. However in order to monitor and update the skill sets of the employees, it is necessary to have adequate records available on such things. These again would require little else than commitment on the part of the crew in order to tabulate the skills and tests that are required to monitor the skill sets. The provision of such records would help to prove that Blue Coral Copter Capers has a structure that keeps its people up to date and believes in continual improvement. Again the company would be helped out in the audits by the FAA because it would provide a highly professional outlook for the company. The resources required to implement these policies are simple and straightforward and would help to boost the company’s commitment to safety. The company would also have to decide on the frequency of the testing required to implement this policy. Testing could initially be carried out on a biannual basis and the frequency could be updated based on feedback from the crew. Another important aspect of safety is the work life balance of the employees. This is all the more in terms of aviation as the employees are the people flying the passengers as well as the main capital investment around. In case of a human failure, there is an increased chance of failure of the capital investment as well as the loss of human life and property. This indicates that the people operating the helicopters should be as relaxed as possible at all times so that they can react to dangerous situations in a positive manner. In general, the aviation industry does not stress its pilots out too much by flying them again and again in small time frames because any mistake due to being overworked could cause a lot of potential damage. The current work practices at Blue Coral Copter Capers present a different story altogether where the employees are allowed to work as much as possible. While the employees may prefer to work as much as possible in order to make more money but they may not be able to perform accordingly all of the time. In order to put a balance between the work and life portfolios of the pilots it is necessary for the Blue Coral Copter Capers management to step in and intervene. At this point in time pilots are allowed to work up to 10 hour shifts that last six to seven days a week. The best practice would be to reduce the working time of the pilots to some eight hours for five days a week. The pilots could be allowed their two weekly holidays at any time convenient to the company (that is the two off days need not be on Saturday and Sunday). Similarly when a pilot takes a sick leave or has to leave for some other reason, the resulting gap in workload should be fulfilled by distributing it over as many pilots as possible in order to keep the workload light and manageable. It is also standard industrial practice to keep records of the flying hours and work time of the pilots (including training and other facets that are also considered part of the job). These records are used to assess the proficiency of pilots and are also used as proof that fair work policies are being implemented in the workplace. Industrial accidents of all kinds are possible due to an exhausted worker or even due to an overworked worker so care must be taken to avoid such situations. Moreover the regulations put in place by the FAA would also not allow the pilots to fly for such long hours without respite. When implementing this idea it is worth noting that the crew would be reluctant to accept new pilots as their take home salaries would be reduced but the crew would have to be assured that this is the best possible solution. As it currently stands, the FAA audit could prove the end of Blue Coral Copter Capers if not taken on a serious note. Therefore in order to avoid any non conformity during the audit it is suggested to hire new pilots and to record the total working hours of existing pilots. The suggested scheme stipulates a total working time of 40 hours each week for each pilot with two complete days off. Moreover the records of the company would have to prove that each pilot is not worked more than eight hours a day or it would cause non conformity as per the FAA standards on the issue. Each pilot should be asked to sign an attendance sheet before each flight or another member of the staff should be allocated to record flights so that the total time in air for each pilot can be found out. In terms of the implementation of a SMS this step would represent a large cost as new pilots would have to be hired and naturally the human resources cost of the company would go up however there is no other solution to this issue except for hiring new pilots to distribute the workload more evenly. One issue that must be appreciated in the current practices of the company is the use of a clipboard to record information. The clipboard represents a simple, cheap yet effective method of storing information regarding the pilots and their flight information. The use of the clipboard should be extended to various aspects of both flying and other activities in order to enhance the amount of information available regarding the operations. Only detailed information regarding issues can help evaluate problems with safety practices as well as root cause analysis and other such investigations. Pre flight inspections are one such aspect that should be recorded continuously using a simple clipboard interface along with a standard preformatted document. This would ensure that any issues related to the aircraft are noted and sent to the maintenance company next door for their consideration. Instead of relying on simple visual checks, it would be more appropriate to fill out simple abbreviated forms that would designate various parts of the aircraft and their condition. Moreover as the helicopters in use are non flight instrument versions so complicated entries are not required anyhow. The use of safety equipment installed aboard the helicopters should also be taken into account more seriously. Most passengers boarding the helicopters for the first time cannot be expected to figure out the ropes on their own. Two possible solutions exist to solve this problem – either the passengers could be shown a simple video that delineates the use of these belts or the passengers could be given a simple demonstration in the helicopter by the pilot as to how these belts should be used. These measures would ensure that the passengers are strapped in if the worst does actually occur. The opening of an exit door during flight and the removal of passenger’s property is an incident that indicates that an unstrapped passenger could also have been lost. Given the delicate nature of this situation it is most appropriate to show the passengers how to use the dangling seat belts. Moreover the passengers should also be told about life jackets and about the exit procedure in case that the helicopter fails over water. The policy to fly as close to shore as possible is highly wise as it minimizes the inherent risk available in flying over water. The passengers should simply be told about the location of the water jackets and their use when such circumstances arrive. It would also be more appropriate to ask customers if they can swim. In case that a helicopter does actually face a situation where a near miss takes place (such as flying too close to a volcano or a torque overload) it should be made mandatory to report such incidents. The contention is not to point out faults or to repress the crew but to learn from each other’s mistakes so that they can be avoided. The management should discuss the near misses with members of the crew on an open forum and evaluate why the near miss actually occurred. Based on the findings from any such reports it would be appropriate to piece together a line of action that would prevent such problems in the future. Moreover it would also provide an auditable series of events that could be required by the FAA in case that an official investigation is launched. Pilots also need to be told more about problems during the flight through appropriate training from a certified expert. The contention is to reduce the risks and hazards by allowing the pilots to learn from the professionals. While this step does represent an upfront cost but it ensures that the helicopters and their cargo are safe in the longer run which is far more beneficial than saving a few dollars over training. In addition to the changes listed above, it would be highly appropriate if the operational and maintenance areas are designated separately in order to avoid any unforeseeable and unwanted incident in the future. The landing pads should be well designated as well as other operational signs should be placed properly in order to keep the maintenance tools out of the rotors of the helicopters. This should be done to avoid personal injury as well as damage to aircraft. Moreover any maintenance activities should be carried out in their designated areas alone and these areas should not be interfering with the regular operational landing and takeoff zone. This would ensure the elimination of any loose materials that could cause harm. Moreover the fence between both facilities ought to be removed as well so that pilots do not have to jump it with their helicopter which poses risks given the low altitude and the close flying space. 7. Conclusion Based on the arguments presented above it is obvious that certain issues exist in the current safety management framework in place at Blue Coral Copter Capers but these issues can all be resolved with a little investment and some management commitment. Safety should be made part of the organizational culture given the nature of the operations being carried out and the inherent risks and hazards associated with such operations. 8. Bibliography Dickstein, J. (2010, February 17). Can You Implement a SMS program? Retrieved November 18, 2011, from MARPA: http://pmaparts.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/can-you-implement-a-sms-program/ Evans, A., & Parker, J. (2008). Beyond Safety Management Systems. AeroSafety World . Federal Register. (2010, November 5). Retrieved November 18, 2011, from GPO: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2010-11-05/pdf/2010-28050.pdf SASO. (2009, June 22). AFS Safety Assurance System: What's Next in Oversight. Retrieved November 16, 2011, from FAA: http://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/saso/library/media/SASO_Briefing_Managers_Toolkit.pdf SASO. (2010). Safety Management System (SMS): The Future of AFS Oversight. Retrieved November 18, 2011, from FAA: http://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/saso/library/media/SMS_Brochure.pdf Transport Canada. (2009). Publication TP 13739. Montreal: Transport Canada. Read More