PPRuNe Forums - safety management system

Skaz
Assuming you are already familiar with the contents of CAP712 'Safety Management Systems for Commercial Air Transport Operations - A Guide to Implementation' (www.caa.co.uk/publications) then the other good places to go for information are mostly outside of aviation.
Corporate safety management systems, similar to corporate quality management systems have been applied with varying degress of success in several high risk industry sectors such as petrochemicals, nuclear and offshore exploration etc. Many blue chip companies in other industries such as car manufacturing, printing, retail etc. have also realised the benefits of co-ordinated quality and safety management systems.
Here are a few other useful references:-
Risk Management AS/NZS 4360:1999 (Standards Association of Australia)
BSEN ISO 9000-1:2000 Quality management and quality assurance standards
BS 8800:1996 Guide to occupational health & safety management systems
HSG 48 Reducing error and influencing behaviour (HSE Books)
HSG 65 Successful health & safety management (HSE Books)

Although some of these are clearly not written from an aviation perspective - the management principles and practices they describe are directly applicable since they deal with the organisational, individual and task factors that can precipitate unsafe behaviours and allow latent unsafe conditions to persist that can lead to operational failures and thereby catastrophic accidents/incidents.

A word of warning - the mythical Safety Management System does not appear overnight out of a box. It will take years or decades to evolve and will require the sustained commitment of top tier management plus significant investment in people and management processes - i.e. money.

Good luck.