Modelling of safety management systems

Management systems for safety and environment and audits for assessing them have been a major research topic of the last few years. This attention has been fuelled by increasing emphasis in European directives on auditable safety management systems (SMS)(1) and by the increasing interest in their certification following the principles of the ISO 9000 series of standards. This paper reviews briefly the literature on this topic and presents a framework within which the total activity of an SMS can be presented using a consistent descriptive language. The framework can be used to describe and evaluate an SMS or to assess the completeness of audit tools designed for SMS evaluation. It can also be used as a didactic framework for safety practitioners and managers and as a tool for accident analysis. The framework combines the following principles: safety management seen as a set of problem solving activities at different levels of abstraction in all phases of the system life cycle; safety related tasks are modelled using the Structured Analysis and Design Technique (SADT). This shows the inputs, resources and criteria/constraints necessary to produce the required outputs; risks are modelled as deviations from normal or desired processes. The framework emphasises the dynamics of safely management as a process. It aims to provide an abstract ordering of the field which can clarify and specify research and policy needs for the Future. It also provides a clear definition of safety culture. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.