I am aware of all the on-line chatter about the “bureaucracy” of a written safety and health program. Although I do not subscribe to this way of thinking and I know of maybe two facilities that are mature enough to manage safety without a lot of the traditional documentation; this SMS documentation is WAY BEYOND what is usually written in a “compliance program approach to safety. Here is a list of items that need to be covered in the SMS documentation to ensure all parties involved understand their function and role within the SMS:
- policy statements of the organization on values and behavioral expectations;
- the fundamental safety objective;
- a description of the organization and its structure;
- a description of the responsibilities and accountabilities;
- the levels of authority, including all interactions of those managing, performing, and assessing work and including all processes;
- a description of how the management system complies with regulatory requirements that apply to the organization; and
- a description of the interactions with external organizations and with interested parties
Another BOG piece of having a world-class SMS is “document control.” All of these documents are in a document control system that provides a routine document review and a change management process for any revisions made to the documents.
All individuals responsible for preparing, reviewing, revising, and approving documents shall be competent to perform the tasks and shall be given access to appropriate information on which to base their input or decisions.
Revisions to documents shall be controlled, reviewed and recorded. Revised documents shall be subject to the same level of approval as the initial documents.
Records shall be specified in the management system and shall be controlled. All records shall be readable, complete, identifiable and easily retrievable. Retention times of records and associated test materials and specimens shall be established to be consistent with the statutory requirements and with the obligations for knowledge management of the organization. The media used for records shall be such as to ensure that the records are readable for the duration of the retention times specified for each record.
