Safety and Production

Safety is a cultural issue and is an intuitive action in our personal life (crossing streets, driving, working at home etc...) which we tend to totally suppress when it comes to the workplace because we are busy doing something else (production). And of course it does not help much when senior management is more interested in production than its commitment to Safety (quality and trainning rank in the same category). Well as the saying goes if you think Safety is expensive, try the cost of an accident. Safety and Production are not necessarily at odds, and safety can be translated into production (less accidents, incidents, work stoppages etc..).
Safety Management System (SMS) is mandated across the aviation sectors in most countries whith remaining following within a few years. This is a traditionally "Safety" oriented industry but SMS formalises functions like risk assesments and mitigation and safety objectives, requiring a culture adjustment within the organisation. It will be very interesting to follow the implemetation of SMS and the organisational culture changes.