The following factors are critical to any SMS’s sucess. The SMS:
• must be comprehensive and integrated with respect to the adopted control measures
• must be implemented in practice and used as the primary means of ensuring safe operation
• should be consistent with the understanding of risk gained from the Safety Assessment
• should have sufficient focus on major incident safety, from planning through to operations
• must be documented and readily accessible and comprehensible to those who use it
• should contain the elements of a generic management cycle (eg. define objectives; plan and implement activities; monitor, audit and review performance;
act on deficiencies)
• must have performance standards, which enable management to measure the effectiveness of the SMS in ensuring safe operation
• should be dynamic and continually improving to adapt to changes and to reflect reality
• should reflect the overall safety culture and values of the facility. It should NOT be a pure paperwork system divorced from actual behaviours and attitudes
of workers
• all persons involved in safe operation MUST have KNOWLEDGE of and be COMITTED to the SMS