SMS Cost Model Project
CIS started a new project, “Cost-Model for the Development, Maintenance and Day-to-day Operations of a Safety Management System“, for EUROCONTROL. A kick-off meeting was held on 24/10/2008 in EUROCONTROL HQ, Brussels. It is expected CIS to complete the project in March 2009.
Only partial information is available on the real costs induced by developing and maintaining a Safety Management System (SMS), including the costs related to the resources devoted to safety management activities.
Initial rough estimates for the staffing of safety management activities are available in the EUROCONTROL document “Best Practices for the Staffing of Safety Management Activities“. These estimates need further refinement and validation considering the effort required for the day-to-day operation of the Safety Management System by small, medium, and large air navigation service provider organisations. EUROCONTROL has developed a Generic Safety Management Manual (EGSMM). This Manual identifies the individual safety management procedures which need to be considered in this project for the SMS cost estimation. Cost estimates should include all cost components, including training effort for building the required staff safety management skills.
It is expected that the size of the service provider organisation (small, medium, and large) will have an impact on the amount of efforts needed for the development and implementation of the safety management procedures and processes. Different SMS development approaches are possible, ranging from the sole use of internal resources to contracting out the significant efforts for its development. Analysing these approaches concerning the organisation’s size will help establish the optimum one for each of the categories mentioned above of service providers.