Aviation Quality Management Systems (QMS) relate to the Safety Management System (SMS)

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Aviation Quality Management Systems (QMS) relate to the Safety Management System (SMS)

How do Quality Management Systems (QMS) relate to the Safety Management System (SMS)?
the chapter discusses the adoption of quality management in the U.S., largely due to the fact that J
bringing higher quality products to the market, and American companies were falling behind. This w
airline industry, as building poor-quality aircraft in large quantities would likely be a disastrous safety
But as the McNeely states, while QMS and SMS have similar goals, they are not as intertwined as o
SMS is to improve the safety performance, and therefore reduce the exposure to risk of having an a
continuous improvement also, but through improving the production record rate…improving a safety
performance. There are many aviation companies that have extremely good safety records, but are organizational structures, and have just not had an accident yet.” (McNeely, 2010).
I found this incredibly thought-provoking. I hadn’t thought of the fact that an airplane part or system
actually lead to a hazardous situation – especially when supplemented by the possibility of human e
Pierobon wrote, “Although QMSs and SMSs share many common features, the peculiarities of SMS
promote the achievement of high safety standards by encouraging a safety culture that considers th
by promoting a hazard identification/risk management–based approach to safety management” (Pie
The more I think about it, QMS and SMS seem to be a chicken-egg discussion. You can’t have a sa
to standard, and you can’t have the highest quality components unless you design, build and opera
QMS is focused production costs and sales, SMS is focused purely on preventing hazardous situat
well here, “A good safety record, just like a good quality record, does not guarantee safety” (McNee
References
McNeely, S. (2010, February 12). Lessons Learned from Toyota-2010-QMS vs SMS. Retrieved Jan
https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/sms/explained/quality_and_safety_management/media/QMS_
(Links to an external site.)
Pierobon, M. (2016, September 13). Quality and Safety. Retri