SAE Update - February 2024 - 58

PrOFESSIONAlDEVElOPMENT
Safety first with Scott Harris,
D&M SMS expert and SAE instructor
safety hazards and managing the
associated aviation and product safety
risks. The most important aspect of the
course-and, in my opinion, the most
important feature of an SMS-is a focus on
the organizational behaviors that
contribute to the introduction of safety
hazards, identification of those hazards,
and management of the resultant risk.
Through my experience with SMS, I have
found several extremely useful tools for
identifying safety hazards and risks that are
lurking within the organization, just below
the surface. My favorite hazard
identification tool is the use of a formal, just
culture process that takes a deep dive into
the organizational and human factors
aspects when events and near misses occur,
or when employees submit hazard reports.
The just culture process is designed to
determine the real root cause for events, by
considering the human in the system
element. Just culture eliminates the
" investigate and discipline " mindset
present in every organization, and focuses
on correcting processes, not punishing
people. Through this impartial oversight of
the investigation process, the organization
is afforded an opportunity to learn and
move from reactive to proactive in their
approach to product safety. Combined with
other safety risk management and safety
assessment tools, such as bowtie analysis,
risk analysis, management of change,
system monitoring, safety and SMS metrics
dashboards, and continuous improvement
58 February 2024
U.S. charter, commuter, and air tour operators may be
required to implement an SMS as soon as 2026.
of the SMS, the organization is able to
create and maintain a robust SMS that will
evolve over time from reactive to proactive,
and eventually predictive. n
ABOUT THE AUTHOr
Scott Harris graduated from the University of New
Mexico with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. Originally
working in the Weapons Programs Division at the
Department of Energy, he joined Bell Helicopter in 1986.
After 28 years at Bell, in various positions on different
programs and in different countries, Harris was asked to
lead Bell's effort to implement an SMS. As the manager
of SMS, he led the implementation of both an Aviation
Safety SMS (AVSSMS) and a D&M SMS for the company.
In 2018, under his leadership, Bell was awarded a Letter
of Acceptance from the FAA for their D&M SMS. In 2021,
Bell received a D&M SMS Acceptance Letter from
Transport Canada for their facility near Montreal. Harris
served on the D&M SMS industry working group that
developed National Aerospace Standard (NAS) 9927
and currently serve as co-chair of the industry working
group that is updating SM-0001. He is a certified Six
Sigma Black Belt and well known in the D&M SMS
community. Upon retirement from Bell after 37 years,
Harris began a consulting firm, D&M SMS Consultants,
LLC, and is currently involved with various companies in
an advisory capacity, as well as with SAE as an instructor.
UPDATE
Embraer
https://swharris999.wixsite.com/dm-sms-consultants https://swharris999.wixsite.com/dm-sms-consultants
SAE Update - February 2024

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