Horizon explores: Risk and Safety Intelligence
SMIS: uniting the railway against risk
The Safety Management Intelligence System fosters collaborative problem solving and compliance.
Jasmin CollierEditorial Content Manager
Rail is strongest when its people and organisations work together. From sharing resources and best practice to ensuring that collected data is comprehensive and transferable, our sector thrives on collaborative problem solving.
One tool central to this endeavour is the Safety Management Intelligence System (SMIS). As rail’s central repository of past and current safety events, SMIS provides a broad overview of national risk.
Since RSSB launched the improved system six years ago, almost 500,000 records have been added. This wealth of vital information helps rail organisations, and the industry at large, understand where present risks are and put meaningful steps in place to reduce them.
Several companies in the sector now produce their own safety performance reports by extracting data they’ve previously uploaded to SMIS. The system’s benchmarking capabilities also allow these organisations to compare their safety events with those of similar companies and national averages. Where SMIS data reveals large differences in performance, managers can identify areas for improvement and plan for change.
The unique ability of SMIS to send details of Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) events to the relevant enforcing authority also makes it a key driver of safety reporting compliance in the sector.
RSSB has recently made several additional improvements to SMIS's functionality, particularly in terms of data automation. Of particular note is the use of machine learning to help increase data accuracy and form completion. As users fill in the form, it can now predict what they are going to type and automatically categorise it to improve overall accuracy.
We are also working on providing application programming interface (API) links to organisations' own reporting systems. API links enable data that has been added to separate systems to be pulled into SMIS automatically, which reduces the need to duplicate form completion.
The SMIS database provides crucial insight for several of RSSB’s own safety improvement initiatives as well. For instance, it’s used in the Learning from Operational Experience Programme and in publications like Right Track, Rail Safety Review, and our various quarterly and annual reports. SMIS also powers tools like the Safety Risk Model and informs several industry risk groups, who use the data to steer industry in the right direction when it comes risk management.
SMIS users in the industry also have an opportunity to provide feedback and recommendations for its refinement. When the system is optimised to the needs of its users, it can empower industry to deliver tangible, system-wide solutions for safety.
We work with industry to make improvements so members can take full advantage of those latest developments in safety risk intelligence and management through [the insights] going into that system.
Safety is more of a journey than a destination, and with SMIS, the stops along the way are full of insight. It enables effective decision making, underpinned by robust data, on introducing mitigation measures and making our railways safer.
For an overview of SMIS in context, visit our dedicated web page.
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