Bjørn K. Haugland, regional manager for DNV Maritime Greater China, discusses the seeds of new safety approaches.
Every shipowner’s top priority is getting crew home safely to their families. Public tolerance levels are getting tougher and all stakeholders are demanding that shipping has a close to zero impact on the environment and public safety.
More rules and checklists will probably not improve safety. Research shows that seafarers regularly break rules to save time.
Studies from the aviation industry show that a pilot makes on average 4.9 mistakes each hour, but the systems are able to correct these mistakes. The maritime industry is not that fortunate. Safety management should therefore be about managing the errors. This means preventing them from happening, “catching” them when they occur, and mitigating their consequences.
To err is human. Let’s face it, we all make mistakes. Unfortunately, mistakes in the maritime industry can cost lives, devastate the environment and ruin companies. What is the answer? Checklists? More rules? Stricter supervision?
Unfortunately the compliance driven safety approach does not by definition address the human element. It is well known that human errors are the direct cause of approximately 80% of all maritime accidents.
We then find that safety solutions can be found by focusing on attitudes, behaviour and awareness. These are the factors that will help your companies to improve safety.
The basic causes of human errors may be found far away from where they actually occur on the vessels. In improving safety, the shore organization and the vessels must work closely together.
Organisational factors or the corporate safety culture are the “parents” of the local workplace performance.
To reduce the number of accidents then, the best place to start is looking at “situational awareness” factors such as communication, leadership, culture, fatigue, and stress.
This is where DNV’s Safety Excellence (Safex) addresses a wide range of organizational dimensions having an effect on safety. Safex’s priority is creating a learning safety organisation.
Changing a company’s culture requires long-term commitment from the whole organisation, and especially the top level management.
In today’s reality, a small operational incident may turn out to have a substantial adverse impact on an organization and its reputation. To build and run a first-class operation, thorough understanding and control of all issues, from strategic management to the hands-on vessel operations, are required. Mastering all issues from boardroom to engine room is today a necessity for any successful management.
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