gsipRecommendations on safety management systems (SMS) typically address the requirements of implementation but less often the challenges associated with data collection. Inadequate quality of data — “garbage in, garbage out” (GIGO) — can be a problem, as well as too many — or too few — data — which can yield the same net effect, the inability to adequately analyze, understand and act on the organization’s safety deficiencies and objectives.
An organization’s SMS can be thought of as a data hub, with programs that feed into the SMS as data spokes. Hub-and-spoke data can be derived from a multitude of sources such as flight operational quality assurance, a fatigue risk management system, an aviation safety action program, a line operations safety audit (LOSA), and the analytical results generated by an SMS.
Sometimes all these data become so difficult to manage that their intended benefit is never fully realized. A number of problems may manifest during data collecti…
