Implementing Safety Management Systems for Aviation into an Aviation Technology Curriculum

While the concept of safety in risk-sensitive industries such as aviation is familiar, organizations still struggle to define and practice effective safety principles on a daily basis, given the dynamic and inherent nature of aviation hazards. This has given rise to the concept of a systems approach to safety and referred to by global standards and regulatory bodies as safety management systems (SMS). Similar in structure to the concept of quality management systems, although with some significant differences, SMS is becoming a regulatory requirement for air operators around the world in all facets of aviation. The migration from the traditional approach of managing safety through a department or official representative is no longer sufficient for maintaining adequate levels of risk control. Managing safety as a "system" has placed new demands and competency requirements on engineering and technology graduates entering aviation. Terms such as "hazard identification," "risk mitigation," and "proactive performance-based safety" must become working competencies; these should be as familiar to graduates as the knowledge and skills of their own technical degree field, if they are to succeed and contribute to the industry. A logical place to educate and equip future industry leaders to manage safety as a system in the aviation environment is in the classroom at the university level before they enter industry. Development and practical application of principles of SMS within an aviation technology laboratory curriculum at Purdue University is currently underway and has shown promising success in learner fluency and proficiency incorporating risk assessment and system management techniques. Implementation techniques and tools for applying basic risk management in a simulated aviation maintenance laboratory using transport category aircraft and the early results are described here.