The policy of an operator reflects the commitment of senior management to ensure measuring and evaluating on a continuing basis, and making changes that improve the management system and the culture. Ideas for improvement may come from internal and external sources; therefore the organization would be constantly monitoring all sources and willing to make changes as necessary to keep the management system refreshed and strongly focused on improving operational quality, safety and security performance.
Such policy typically commits the organization to:
• Regular review of performance-based indicators by senior management;
• Regular analysis of malfunctions or undesirable operational results;
• Follow-up of corrective actions and their effectiveness in improving operational performance.
The continual improvement policy is typically reviewed periodically to ensure continuing relevance to the organization.
An SMS, as well as a Quality Management System (QMS) and Security Management System (SeMS), are integrated components of an operator's overall management system and would typically be subjected to protocols for continual improvement in accordance with the operator's policy.
A continual improvement policy is normally documented in operations manuals or other controlled documents and, to enhance effectiveness, communicated and made visible throughout the organization by disseminating communiqués, posters, banners and other forms of informational media.
Consistent with the structure and complexity of the operator's organization, the continual improvement policy may be issued as a stand-alone policy or combined with the safety policy specified in ORG 1.2.1.