Baldwin Aviation of Hilton Head Island, S.C., a developer of flight department safety management systems (SMS), introduced a Web-based program, SMSlite, at the NBAA Convention. The program is designed for operators that have already met the registration requirements for International Standard for Business Aviation Organizations (IS-BAO).

"SMSlite was created for flight organizations looking to improve their methods of collecting, reporting and distributing safety data and communicating it more effectively through their organizations," said Don Baldwin, president and CEO of Baldwin Aviation (Booth No. 2719). "We call it 'lite' because one of its basic attributes is that it eliminates unnecessary steps and needless paperwork and lightens the administrative workload associated with managing safety-related data."

SMSlite is intended to bring more transparency and efficiency to the task of sharing safety information within an organization, even as operators move toward adopting programs that meet the demands of IS-BAO, a continuous improvement program. Baldwin is currently the only IS-BAO-registered SMS implementor.

The program allows customization of many elements of SMS reporting, including risk assessments, safety reports and internal audit forms.

"We realize that one of the major impediments to effective safety management is the paperwork and augmentation that goes with it," said Baldwin. "Especially in the smaller flight operations, logical and necessary steps are delayed or ignored because there's just no time to standardize or properly codify the procedures. SMSlite addresses that concern. It's a safety data management center that, when supplementing an existing safety program, can take an organization to the next generation of safety management in a matter of days."