Assessments and Audits

Q1.  How will the effectiveness of an individual organization’s SMS be assessed?

The effectiveness of an organisation’s SMS will be determined through the use of an assessment tool. The tool comprises a set of expectations and assessment criteria for determining whether an organisation has met the regulatory requirements and whether the programs they have put in place are effective. Effectiveness is determined through interviews and reviews of the organisation’s SMS components. This would include assessing the level of knowledge of the SMS, considering whether individuals are using the SMS in the prescribed way and whether their inputs to the SMS are valid. For example, Transport Canada might choose to review the number, type and sources of internal reports submitted, the depth of analysis performed, and the effectiveness of the corrective action taken, as evidenced by the absence of recurrences of the reported problems. If we apply the “plan, do, check, act” quality cycle to the analysis, we can effectively assess whether the SMS has been planned, implemented, reviewed and monitored and continuously improved upon.

Transport Canada will assess the observations against a set of criteria that provide a framework for the assessor to determine whether a company, meets, exceeds or does not meet the minimum standards required for an SMS. If a company exceeds the minimum standards they will be given credit for being an exemplary system.

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