Can you teach an old seadog new tricks? Experimental evaluation of BRM training in the commercial fleet

Objective: The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Crew Resource Management (CRM) training in the commercial shipping fleet – termed Bridge Resource Management (BRM) training. Background: CRM training has been widely employed and researched in several high reliability settings. However, there is a lack of experimental studies assessing CRM training in commercial shipping. Method: An experimental pretest – posttest study measuring satisfaction with training, knowledge, attitudes, and team behavior in bridge simulators. Five hypotheses were made; H1) The BRM training will receive positive evaluation, H2) BRM training will improve knowledge, H3) BRM training will improve attitudes, H4) BRM training will improve behavior, H5) The relationship between Teamwork and Mission success is positively mediated by Situation awareness. Results: H1 was fully supported. H2 was fully supported. H3 was partly supported. H4 was not supported. H5 was fully supported. Conclusion: The training was positively evaluated and improved knowledge and some of the targeted attitudes. Behavior could not be shown to improve with statistical significance, but it cannot be ruled out that a stronger experimental design and increased sample size would yield significant results. Relations among behavior measures confirms established CRM theory. Application: The present study provides supporting evidence that BRM training can indeed improve safety-relevant knowledge and attitudes. However, to improve behavior on the bridge, training should be adapted to specific work procedures

Analysis of the impact of deploying thermal protective immersion suits on evacuation time for passenger ships operating in polar waters

For passenger vessels operating in polar waters, the Polar Code requires that in case of possibility of immersion in polar waters, thermal protective immersion suits (TPIS) should be available for all passengers. Thus, international standards require that TPIS can be donned within 2 min and that walking speeds are reduced by no more than 25%. Clearlythese requirements are arbitrary and do not reflect their potential impact on evacuation performance. Other IMO requirements specify the maximum time permitted for assembly and abandonment times for passenger ships, which can be assessed using agent-based evacuation modelling (ABEM). However, these requirements currently ignore the impact of TPIS and employ a safety factor of 25% to represent all factors ignored when modelling evacuation. Here we explore the impact of TPIS on both the assembly and abandonment times of a hypothetical vessel using ABEM. The results demonstrate that requiring the donning of a TPIS can increase assembly times by as much as 65% and negatively impacts the abandonment process. It is thus essential that additional requirements associated with evacuation of vessels in polar waters are reflected within the IMO passenger ship evacuation certification guidelines. The paper suggests several ways in which this can be achieved

Safety culture and safety management within the Norwegian-controlled shipping industry ; State of art, interrelationships, and influencing factors

PhD thesis in Risk management and societal safetyThe thesis is based on the following articles, some of them not yet available in Brage due to copyright.PAPER 1: Oltedal, H. A., & Engen, O. A. (2009). Local management and its impact on safety culture and safety within Norwegian shipping. In S. Martorell, C. Guedes Soares & J. Barnett (Eds.), Safety, Reliability and Risk Analysis: Theory, Methods and Applications (pp. 1423-1430). London: Taylor & Francis Group.PAPER 2: Oltedal, H. & Wadsworth, E. (2010). Risk perception in the Norwegian shipping industry and identification of influencing factors. Maritime Policy & Management, 37(6), 601-623. DOI: 10.1080/03088839.2010.514954PAPER 3: Oltedal, H. A. (2010). The use of safety management systems within the Norwegian tanker industry—Do they really improve safety? In R. Bris, C. Guedes Soares, & S. Martorell (Eds.), Reliability, Risk and Safety: Theory and Applications (pp. 2355-2362). London: Taylor & Francis Group.PAPER 4: Oltedal, H. A., & Engen, O. A. (2010). Tanker versus dry cargo—The use of safety management systems within Norwegian dry cargo shipping. In J.M. Ale, I.A. Papazoglou, & E. Zio (Eds.), Reliability, Risk and Safety (pp. 2118- 2125). London: Taylor & Francis Group.PAPER 5: Oltedal, H. & McArthur, D. (2010). Reporting practices in merchant shipping, and the identification of influencing factors. Safety Science, 49(2), 331-338.PAPER 6: Oltedal, H. A., & Engen, O. A. (2010). Safety Management in Shipping— Making Sense of limited Success. Safety Science Monitor, submitted.This research focuses attention on safety challenges within the Norwegian shipping industry. A status picture of the shipboard safety culture and the interrelationships with safety management and organizational factors is given. Three research questions are explored: (1) What characterizes safety culture and safety management within the shipping industry? (2) What is the relationship between safety culture and safety performance within the shipping industry? (3) What characterizes shipping companies’ application of the safety management concept? In order to explore these research questions, four aims were defined to guide this work: (1) to outline and discuss the application of safety culture and safety management within merchant shipping; (2) to outline and discuss relevant theories of safety culture and safety management and analyze the relationship between safety culture and safety management; (3) to support the use of a methodological framework for the assessment of safety culture in relation to safety management; and (4) to assess safety culture within merchant shipping and analyze the relationship with safety management and actual performance. The research questions are further examined and specified in six journal articles. The thesis is divided into two main parts. Part I includes the overall framework in relation to research aims. Part II presents the six journal articles. In part I, chapter 1, a general introduction and a status picture of risk, safety management, and safety culture within the shipping industry are presented, which gives reason for the research aims and questions introduced in the chapter. Chapter 2 outlines the safety responsibilities within the industry at the international, national, and company levels. Emphasis is placed on the vi International Safety Management (ISM) Code, which provides the minimum standards and guidelines for operational safety management. Chapter 3 provides theoretical clarification and framing with regard to safety culture and safety management. This chapter also introduces a general working model used in the studies of safety culture and safety management in this thesis. Chapter 4 presents the methodological approach. The thesis builds upon a mixed method approach where both qualitative and quantitative techniques are used. The main results are briefly summarized in Chapter 5, followed by a discussion in Chapter 6 and concluding remarks in Chapter 7. The concluding remarks concern study limitations, implications, and suggestions for future research. The thesis draws upon theory from both the socio-anthropological and organizational psychological directions. In accordance with the organizational psychological perspective, a survey was carried out. A safety culture questionnaire developed by Studio Apertura, a constituent centre of The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), in collaboration with the Norwegian DNV and the research institution SINTEF was used. In total, 1,574 questionnaires were distributed to 83 tanker and bulk/dry cargo carriers, with 1,262 being returned from 76 of the vessels. The vessels were initially randomly selected from the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association member list, but as participation was voluntary, some withdrawal occurred. Statistical analysis involves descriptive statistics, factor analysis, regression analysis, and structural equation modeling. The statistical survey results were complemented by qualitative data obtained through document studies, case studies including two tanker companies and two bulk/dry cargo companies, vii interviews, participating observations and field studies at sea, and participation in other maritime forums. The study results indicate several deficiencies in all parts of a traditional safety management system defined as: (1) the reporting and collection of experience data from the vessel; (2) data processing, summarizing, and analysis; (3) the development of safety measures; and (4) implementation. The underreporting of experience data is found to be a problem, resulting in limitations related to the data-processing process. Regarding the development of safety measures, it is found that the industry emphasizes the development of standardized safety measures in the form of procedures and checklists. Organizational root causes related to company policies (e.g., crewing policy) is to a lesser degree identified and addressed. The most prominently identified organizational influential factors are the shipping companies crewing policy, which includes rotation systems, crew stability, and contract conditions, and shipboard management. The companies’ orientation toward local management, which includes leadership training, educational, and other managerial support, are also essential. The shore part of the organization is identified as the driving force for development and change in the shipboard safety culture. Thus, safety campaigns should to a larger degree include and be directed toward shore personnel

Situation awareness in bridge operations – A study of collisions between attendant vessels and offshore facilities in the North Sea

This study examined accident reports ( n = 23) for collisions between attendant vessels and offshore facil- ities on the Norwegian continental shelf during the period of 2001–2011. An initial analysis indicated that the concept of situation awareness (SA) might be useful for providing a more detailed understanding of the processes that lead to collisions. SA is defined as ‘being aware of what is happening around you and understanding what that information means to you now and in the future’ (Endsley, 2012, p. 13). The first part of the study contains an analysis of accident reports that reveals that the collisions with offshore facilities were preceded by loss of SA on the bridge in 18 of the 23 instances. Three types of SA errors were identified: failure to perceive the situation correctly (Level 1 SA; n = 13), failure to comprehend the situ- ation (Level 2 SA; n = 4), and failure to project the situation into the future (Level 3 SA; n = 1). In the sec- ond part of the study, the human, technological and organisational factors described in the accident reports are analysed to evaluate how the factors may have affected the duty officers‘ awareness of the situation. The results indicate that inadequate operation planning, inadequate bridge design, insufficient training, communication failures and distracting elements were the underlying factors that significantly contributed to the collisions

A methodology for collecting donning times of thermal protective immersion suits intended to be worn by passengers on vessels operating in cold environments

Adequate thermal protection for passengers travelling on-board vessels in cold climate regions, such as that provided by thermal protective immersion suits (TPIS), enhances passenger survivability in emergency situations, in particular those requiring the abandonment of the vessel. As emergency abandonment is a time critical process, it is essential to consider the time required to correctly don the TPIS. Testing standards, such as the International Maritime Organization guidelines, require that TPIS must be able to be donned within 2 minutes. Unfortunately, current practices quantifying donning times are questionable and so there is a limited evidence base that reliably quantifies donning times required by typical passengers. This paper presents a test procedure designed to reliably quantify the time required by test subjects to don the TPIS. Furthermore, the procedure assesses the donning correctness – a TPIS that is incorrectly donned is unlikely to offer appropriate thermal protection. The paper will also discuss the deficiencies in current practices to assess required donning time

Way-finding on-board training for maritime vessels

In the maritime industry, it is of vital importance that personnel onboard ships are familiarized with the ship’s layout, along with safety equipment and processes for safeguarding of the individual seafarer and the ship’s crew. In fact, international maritime regulations require that all personnel employed or engaged on a seagoing ship receive proper familiarization training. However, several studies have identified lack of familiarization as a contributing factor to maritime incidents. There are several challenges associated with the current familiarization practices: cost, difficulty in optimizing planning, variation in practices in familiarization and the experience of the facilitator of familiarization process. This paper presents a study consisting of 58 students comparing traditional and virtual familiarization. No overall difference was found between real and virtual familiarization overall, although some differences were found for single waypoints. Individual differences were more important than treatment, indicating that virtual familiarization can perform on par with traditional approaches.Way-finding on-board training for maritime vesselsacceptedVersio

An experimental analysis of the impact of thermal protective immersion suit and angle of heel on individual walking speeds

The cold environment of Polar Regions introduces additional challenges to maritime safety in situations where it becomes necessary to abandon a vessel. The Polar Code requires all vessels operating in Polar Regions to be equipped with approved thermal protective clothing suitable for immersion in polar waters (thermal protective immersion suit (TPIS)) for all passengers and crew. However, in addition to assessing thermal protection offered by TPIS, given the criticality of time in emergencies, it is essential to understand their impact on walking performance during evacuation and how this may be impacted by adverse vessel orientation. The ARCEVAC (ARCtic EVACuation) project examines the impact of two different types of TPIS (Suit-1 and Suit-2) on walking speed at 0°, 10°, 15° and 20° angles of heel. A test facility representing a 36 m long ship’s corridor was developed and 210 volunteers recruited to participate in the trials. Project findings reveal that male performed considerably better than female counterparts and increases in age, weight and heel angle had significant adverse impact on walking speed while increase in height resulted in significant increase in walking speed. Furthermore, the specific nature of the TPIS had an impact on walking speed, with the most severe reduction in walking speeds being 38% for Suit-2 and 29% for Suit-1 at 20° of heel. Reductions in walking speed of this magnitude can have a profound impact on evacuation and so cannot be ignored from evacuation analysis