SMS processes are used in day-to-day operational decisions and activities so that safety is weighed when transport operations are planned and carried out rather than checked afterwards; the standard does not say how operational decisions are to be made and looks only at whether the SMS is embedded in operations in a way that shapes behaviour and decisions before and during the work, proportionate to the operation. Four things are looked for. The relevant SMS processes are applied in routine operational decisions, including those made while planning and running transport activities. Safety considerations drawn from the SMS are weighed as activities are planned and while they are under way, not only once they are over. The people who make or influence operational decisions can use the SMS to organise, prioritise or adjust work in response to public risk. And operational practice matches the intent of the SMS and does not routinely sidestep or undercut SMS processes in favour of informal or ad hoc decisions.
The graph holds this control, the 0 it maps to, and the evidence behind each claim, over MCP and REST.