Investigating Trends in Aviation Safety Management Systems
SMS Pro's risk impact trending analysis charts usually show changes in one or more Y variables over time.
The term "trend analysis" refers to the concept of collecting information and attempting to spot a pattern, or trend in the information.
SMS Pro's trending analysis charts usually show changes in one or more Y variables over time. The X axis may be months, years, or any combination of date-time. Filters can be applied for divisions and types of concern, such as safety, security, quality or compliance.
More sophisticated SMS Pro™ implementations can take data from multiple portals to analyze.
Using Trending Charts
With SMS Pro's Trending Charts module, one can investigate developing trends with issues that have been classified in the Issue Manager. For each classification system, the procedures to conduct an analysis remain the same.
The first step is to determine the type of trend to investigate. From the upper tabs, one can choose between:
- Types of Issues
- Root Causes
- Type of Business Process
Choose whether to narrow your investigation to one division or the entire company by selecting an item from the dropdown list for "Show Issues for"
Next, decide whether to change the date parameters. By default, the start date is filled with the date of the first reported issue in the system. The end date contains today's date.
One is able to filter the types of reported issues (safety, security, quality or compliance) by selecting an option from the "Type of Concern" dropdown list. "Type of Concern" should not be confused with "Type of Issue." Types of Issue are customizable by the SMS Admin and may be unique to each division.
Immediately above the Trending Charts, one sees three dropdown lists. These dropdown lists are connected to the classification schemes in the Issue Manager. However, in this case, only those classifications with any data will appear. For example, if there is a "Maintenance" type of issue in the regular classification schema, and no issues have been classified as "Maintenance," the "Maintenance" classification won't appear in these dropdown lists. This feature reduces the hunting required to discover trends.
Selecting an item from the far-most left dropdown feeds triggers the center dropdown list. Likewise, selecting an item from the center dropdown list triggers the dropdown list at the far right.
Trending charts auto-populate with new data when the values in the dropdown lists change. Furthermore, a label appears below the dropdown lists showing the active classification scheme under investigation.
Two trending charts appear:
- Number Issues by Year
- Number Issues by Month
Number of Issues by Year shows the number of reported issues classified according to the selected dropdown list values by year
Number of Issues by Month show how many issues had been reported for each month according to the selected dropdown list values by year. This graph helps determine whether seasonal factors may exist.
At any time, one can right-click the graphs and copy/paste them to an external program, such as Word.
More Information About Safety Trending & Analysis
Guide to Methods & Tools for Airline Flight Safety Analysis
Seneca College Aviation Safety
Wikipedia Trend Analysis Definition
Skybrary Safety Trend Evaluation, Analysis