Question

Using the FAA 5 Block SRM model explain how you will show the Service provider how that model is used to develop controls and mitigation strategies if the Risk was deemed “acceptable”

Answer 1

The four components of a Safety Measurement System are:

1. Safety Policy — Establishes senior management's commitment to continually improve safety; defines the methods, processes, and organizational structure needed to meet safety goals
   • Establishes management commitment to safety performance through SMS
   • Establishes clear safety objectives and commitment to manage to those objectives
   • Defines methods, processes, and organizational structure needed to meet safety goals
   • Establishes transparency in management of safety
     • Fully documented policy and processes
     • Employee reporting and resolution system
     • Accountability of management and employees
   • Builds upon the processes and procedures that already exist
   • Facilitates cross-organizational communication and cooperation
2. Safety Risk Management (SRM) — Determines the need for, and adequacy of, new or revised risk controls based on the assessment of acceptable risk
   • A formal process within the SMS composed of:
     • Describing the system
     • Identifying the hazards
     • Assessing the risk
     • Analyzing the risk
     • Controlling the risk
   • The SRM process may be embedded in the processes used to provide the product/service
3. Safety Assurance (SA) — Evaluates the continued effectiveness of implemented risk control strategies; supports the identification of new hazards
   • SMS process management functions that systematically provide confidence that organizational outputs meet or exceed safety requirements
   • AVS SMS has a dual safety assurance focus:
     • AVS organizations
     • Product/service providers
   • Ensures compliance with SMS requirements and FAA orders, standards, policies, and directives
     • Information Acquisition
       • Audits and evaluations
       • Employee reporting
     • Data Analysis
     • System Assessment
   • Provides insight and analysis regarding methods/opportunities for improving safety and minimizing risk
   • Existing assurance functions will continue to evaluate and improve service
4. Safety Promotion — Includes training, communication, and other actions to create a positive safety culture within all levels of the workforce
   • Safety promotion activities within the SMS framework include:
     • Providing SMS training
     • Advocating/strengthening a positive safety culture
     • System and safety communication and awareness
     • Matching competency requirements to system requirements
     • Disseminating safety lessons learned
   • Everyone has a role in promoting safety

Interfaces Between SRM and SA

Safety Risk Management (SRM) and Safety Assurance (SA) are the key processes of the SMS. They are also highly interactive. The flowchart below may be useful to help visualize these components and their interactions. The interface attribute concerns the input-output relationships between the activities in the processes. This is especially important where interfaces between processes involve interactions between different departments, contractors, etc. Assessments of these relationships should pay special attention to flow of authority, responsibility and communication, as well as procedures and documentation.

As part of the effort to support the FAA Strategic Initiatives, and to help the FAA achieve the Next Level of Safety, the ATO has developed the System Risk Event Rate as a measure of its safety performance. The System Risk Event Rate metric, a 12-month rolling rate that compares the number of high-risk losses of standard separation to the number of total losses of separation, is based on Risk Analysis Events. Risk Analysis Events are losses of standard separation in which less than two-thirds of the required separation is maintained. Risk Analysis Events are identified and assessed as part of the Risk Analysis Process, which considers causal factors and pilot and controller performance when assessing the severity and repeatability of the event(s) that occurred. Through the Risk Analysis Process, Risk Analysis Events replace the long-standing measures of safety performance in the ATO, allowing relationships to be drawn between events and potential causes. From performance of individual facilities up to the NAS-wide system level, the Risk Analysis Process helps focus ATO safety initiatives on significant causes, events, and hazards that necessitate remedial action, thus, advancing risk-based decision-making initiatives.

SRM is a formalized approach to integrated system safety. It both informs decision-makers about the potential hazards, risks, and mitigations associated with a particular proposal and identifies ways to mitigate existing hazards in the NAS. The methodology is applied to all NAS equipment, operations, and procedures to identify safety hazards and address risk. It is important to understand that though the ATO uses SRM as a formal safety and risk assessment process, its philosophy is easily understood outside of the technical realm of aviation. For example, a person performs SRM each time he or she crosses the street. The individual identifies hazards (cars passing), analyzes and assesses the risk (potential to be struck and severity if he or she is), and explores mitigations (looking both ways for traffic and/or heeding pedestrian signals) to reduce the perceived risk to an acceptable level before proceeding. It is necessary to make the approach to managing safety risk into a formalized, objective process. This helps ensure the effective management and mitigation of safety hazards and risk. SRM provides a means to: • Identify potential hazards and analyze and assess safety risk in ATO operations and NAS equipment, • Define mitigations to reduce risk to an acceptable level, • Identify safety performance targets to use as a benchmark for the expected performance of mitigations, and • Create a plan that an organization can use to determine if expected risk levels are met and maintained.