The Safety Management System for Lufthansa Airline

This paper sets out to discuss the safety and management system (SMS) for Lufthansa Airline. It incorporates four pertinent components that will make the SMS for the airline a great success.

1.0 Safety Policy and Objectives

The Safety Policy for Lufthansa Airlines should be able to outline strategies and processes that airline will execute to attain expected safety outcomes. Creating a positive safety culture starts with a clear, unambiguous direction from the Accountable Supervisor. In setting up a security policy, the top management should discuss with critical staff members responsible for the security of critical areas. The discussion will ensure the relevancy of security system and shared obligation for the safety culture in the firm (Safety Behavior, 2013). An optimistic safety culture is where employees are under obligation to reflect on the effect of, safety on virtually everything they undertake on:

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Management Commitment and Responsibility

The responsible manager ought to have absolute necessity for the SMS and must entail organisation authority for making sure all activities can be funded and that resources are apportioned to control safety threats of the outcomes of hazards that threaten corporate competencies. The management should also complete influence that ensures adequate employment echelons. Moreover, they should not only take charge the airline’s tasks but also have a strong voice when it comes to the airline operations and responding to all safety matters.

The top management should elaborate on safety guidelines as approved by the Accountable Manager. They are also under obligation to enhance safety guidelines to all employees and express their dedication to it. Identify and apportion indispensable human and monetary reserves and institute safety aims and performance specifications for the SMS.  As such safety objectives and performance specifications should be interlinked to the safety performance benchmarks, safety performance goals and SMS specifications (Safety Behavior, 2013).

Managers Safety Obligations

Lufthansa airline will be required to identify the responsibilities of the manager in charge and also safety tasks of key personnel. It is pertinent that security management is viewed as an essential strategic facet of the airline’s business by apportioning safety the priority that it deserves (Safety Behavior, 2013). The top management will be required to institute specifications for Lufthansa’s safety culture.  Exclusive of this dedication, an SMS will be unproductive.

Appointment of Critical Safety Personnel

While Lufthansa’s SMS structure should mirror the size, nature as well as complexity of the organisation, it should consider closely the appointment of a safety manager and the creation of security teams (Safety Behavior, 2013).

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The Safety Director

The person in charge with security ought to stem from a top management cadre in the airline so as to offer the required degree of authority when dealing with safety matters and is answerable to the Accountable Manager.

Responsibilities of Safety Manager

To have vast experience in operations management coupled with a proficient technical backdrop to comprehend structures that underpin the airline. Apart from people skills, one should have logical, problem resolving and project management know-how.  In addition, one should have oral as well as written communiqué expertise.

It is imperative to understand that answerability for the SMS is bestowed upon the Accountable Manager as opposed to the safety director (Viscusi, 2008). However, the Safety Manager is tasked with the obligation for the development administration as well as maintenance of an effective SMS.

Functions of the Safety Manager

Oversee the implementation of the SMS chart for the Accountable Manager and ensure the risk control process sets out by identifying risk assessment as well as risk control. Lufthansa’s safety manager will also be required to supervise any curative action expected with a view to ensuring completion (Viscusi, 2008). Apart from offering regular accounts on safety, they would be required to maintain safety citations, plan and schedule employee safety training. It is also the responsibility of the Safety Manager to offer not only autonomous counsel on safety issues but also supervise hazard identification systems.

The Emergency Response Plan (ERP)

Lufthansa should put in place an ERP that presents the activities to be undertaken by the airline in case of an emergency. The ERP ought to be included into the SMS and replicate the size, nature and intricacy of the activities made by the carrier (Roughton, 2002).

The ERP should ensure a methodical and proficient transition from typical to emergency operations; apportion emergency obligations, approval by key personnel for activities captured in the plan and by coordinating efforts to resolving the emergency. The ERP should ensure a harmless extension of activities as soon as feasible. Moreover, the ERP ought to put in place obligations, functions and actions for several agencies and employees engaged in handling the crisis.

Documentation

The airline’s SMS ought to be representative of the character, range and difficulty of the organization. It should include pertinent guidelines, SMS documentation management, and manuscript. The safety instruction ought to entail a commitment to attaining optimum safety specifications, examine all appropriate legal specifications, requirements, and best practices.

It should equally present appropriate reserves and implement security and a primary obligation for the top management (Roughton, 2002). It ought to ensure the policy is executed and comprehended at all echelons both from within and without. Lufthansa’s SMS manual ought to be the core mechanism by which strategies to safety are communicated across the airline, by documenting all aspects of the SMS, such as the safety strategy, aims, processes and individual protection accountabilities.

2.0 Safety Risk Management

This component involves three different categories including hazard identification; assessment and mitigation of risks; and investigation of internal safety. Safety is a state whereby risk or damage is reduced to an acceptable degree (Roughton, 2002). Management of security focuses on a systematic technique for identifying hazards and management of risks. Way of SMS procedure can detect hazards causing risks.

Identification of hazards

This is a formal process of that will entail gathering, recording, analysis and getting views regarding hazards that impact the operational process of the Lufthansa airline. In addition, this will be a continuous procedure (Bird and Schlesinger, 2010). The scope of identifying hazards across operational processes of the airline using the information collected from reactive as well as proactive structures. Responsive structures will be in form of scenarios, accidents; monitoring data from flight while proactive will be from safety surveys, audits, and private reporting modes. Moreover, managed group meetings will be used to detect hazards.

Assessment of risk and mitigation procedure

After hazards are identified, an assessment is needed to help in determining their likely damage. This will entail the possibility of the damage causing harmful effects, and severity of the potential negative impact. For Lufthansa airline, a system will be designed to assess and analyze the collected information. Then the information will be disseminated to personnel in charge of safety in the firm. Nonetheless, confidential reporting channels will be centered on established individual variables in addition to efficient feedback procedure.

Moreover, the risk assessment will comprise of taking into consideration the probability as well as the severity of negative effects from the identified damage (Bird and Schlesinger, 2010). Whereas arithmetic models may present reliable outcome, primarily such analyzes can be qualitatively replaced by subjective relevant and logical assessment of interconnected facts. Owing to that fact, a risk matrix will be necessary in assessing the damage. Whereas the severity of effects can be described, the possibility of occurrence can be subjective, with respect to Lufthansa’s operational processes.

Mitigation of risks

Risks must be controlled to reduce their occurrence. In addition, they should be balanced based on time, complexity of taking variables to mitigate risks and costs. Thus, the degree of risk will be reduced based on the severity of likely effects and minimizing the possibility of occurrence (Bird and Schlesinger, 2010). Additionally, the corrective measure will prioritize current safety measures and their ineffectiveness to realize the acceptable degree of risks. However, remedial measure will be subject to further assessment so as to verify that risk is acceptable as such no additional risks are initiated in the operational process.

Investigation of internal safety

This aspect will involve investigating occurrences appropriate to verify as well as validate underlying hazards.  A system technique will be used to present a far-reaching recognition of any form of existence (Broyhill and Freiwald, 2012). Expended attempts should be related to expected benefits to Lufthansa airline with respect to risk and hazard identification.  Hence, investigation technique will follow an iterative procedure that requires collecting information from different sources including; interviews, safety databases, documentation and monitoring operation information.

3.0 Safety Assurance

For Lufthansa airline to have a successful SMS, it will have to implement a security assurance that will involve monitoring safety performance, assessment and review; managing change; and continuous enhancement of security structures. In this regard, monitoring safety performance and evaluation should comprise of verifying Lufthansa’s safety performance against its stipulated objectives as well as policies. This procedure includes safety audits, reporting, reviews and surveys. Safety checks will provide a basis for ensuring that SMS structures are efficient with respect to enough workforce, adherence to stipulated procedures and guidelines; competency level and awareness to use equipment to increase their performance degree (Broyhill and Freiwald, 2012).

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On the other hand, safety surveys basically deal with assessing particular components or procedures of a particular operation and entails the use of checklists, questionnaires, and personal interviews. However, survey data is subjective, as such it should be confirmed before any corrective measure is put in place though it may present readily available source of safety data. With respect to managing manage, it is in form of the formal procedure with the ability to identify both external and internal changes that are likely to impact stipulated operations. In addition, it will use Lufthansa’s current risk management procedures so as to guarantee that there are adverse effects on the general safety of the firm (Chhokar, J. A. and Wallin, 2011). Change can result in new hazards that are likely to affect the aptness and effectiveness of the existing risk management.

Continuous enhancement of safety structure will determine the short causes of low performance with respect to their impacts on the SMS. Moreover, it will verify and correct cases that involve low-performance areas identified by safety assurance. Therefore, continuous enhancement will be realized by evaluating facilities, processes using safety surveys and audits; assessment of every worker performance to determine their commitment to safety; and monitoring changes to make sure that they are effective (Chhokar, J. A. and Wallin, 2011). By and large, safety assurance for Lufthansa Airline will involve regular safety audits that will allow the company to verify its safety performance and correct any low performing standards that can affect effective performance of the SMS system.

4.0 Safety Promotion

Safety promotion will involve various aspects including;

Training programs
In this case, all Lufthansa staff will take part in safety training. Mainly, operational personnel, managers, and supervisors will be trained on how to carry out their SMS roles. Executive staff will be trained to have a detailed understanding regarding of the airline’s safety standards and the general overview of the importance of SMS (Chhokar, J. A. and Wallin, 2011).. While managers and supervisors will be educated to gain knowledge concerning safety procedures, identification of hazards, change management and management of risks.

Safety communication

This is an important aspect of the development as well as maintenance of safety policy. For that reason, the airline will use various channels of communication such as presentations, meetings, newsletters among others. Furthermore, safety communication will be implemented to make sure that all workers adequately understand SMS and the firm’s safety policy; disseminate relevant safety information; complement and improve the airline’s safety policy; provide the importance of introducing safety standards; and assess the appropriateness of safety communication and its impact on Lufthansa airline (Chhokar, J. A. and Wallin, 2011).

References

Bird, F. E., Jr. and L. E. Schlesinger (2010). “Safe-behavior Reinforcement.” American Society of Safety Engineers Journal 15: 16-24.
Chhokar, S. J. and J. A. and Wallin (2011). “Improving Safety through Applied Behavior  Analysis.” Journal of safety research. 15 (4).
Chris Broyhill and David Freiwald (2012). “CRM and SMS: Directing the evolution of aviation         organizational culture” CASS: 57th annual Corporate Aviation Safety Seminar. San  Antonio, Texas: FSF and NBAA.
Roughton, James (2002). Developing an Effective Safety Culture: A Leadership Approach (1st     ed.). Butterworth-Heinemann.

Safety Behavior (2013). Human factors for engineers. Civil Aviation Safety Authority, Australia
Viscusi, W. Kip (2008). Job Safety”. In David R. Henderson (ed.). Concise Encyclopedia of  Economics (2nd ed.). Indianapolis: Library of Economics and Liberty.