Safety Management System (SMS) at Des Moines International Airport
What is SMS?
A Safety Management System (SMS) is a proactive and systematic approach to managing safety. At Des Moines International Airport (DSM), SMS involves identifying and resolving safety concerns through ongoing collaboration and analysis. SMS is an integral part of all airport activities, with the primary objective of achieving and maintaining the highest safety standards and performance. We believe that an effective SMS relies on each individual to participate in, and improve, safety as a part of their daily work activities by working safely and reporting safety concerns.
SMS at DSM consists of four key components:
- Safety Policy: This involves establishing and managing safety policies and identifying goals and objectives to measure the performance of the SMS. DSM's management is committed from the highest levels to this safety endeavor.
- Safety Risk Management: This component is founded on performing risk assessments to identify hazards proactively, assess risks, and develop controls to reduce hazards to acceptable levels.
- Safety Promotion: This includes training, communication, and other actions to create a positive safety culture. It involves not only identifying and reporting hazards but also promotional efforts to encourage a safety-first mindset and communicate safety information effectively.
- Safety Assurance: This measure the effectiveness of DSM's SMS through evaluations and audits, allowing for continuous improvement of our safety systems.
Why SMS?
SMS does not replace existing airport safety processes or regulatory oversight. Instead, SMS provides DSM with an opportunity to create systems that support the safe delivery of all DSM operations in an efficient, effective manner that we can collaboratively evaluate and monitor.
SMS serves as a system for how DSM approaches our organization's safety. By uniting our aviation community's efforts with existing processes, SMS provides a framework for avoiding duplicated effort and misunderstanding, ensuring our safety work is effective. At DSM, we will work together to tie efforts from all stakeholders into a systematic approach to understanding and managing risk, especially safety risk.
No safety program can eliminate all risk or guarantee safety. In part, this is why SMS is not just a program, but a system. It is a systems approach to safety - one that acknowledges the role each of us plays in maintaining a safe workplace. SMS allows each of us at DSM to have a clearer vision for what safety looks like, not merely complying with rules and regulations. When our airport community is faced with a difficult situations for which there are no clear guidelines, SMS helps us approach the problem with clarity of purpose, learn more effectively from it, and build resilient teams committed to improving safety for everyone.
Safety Resources & Reporting