Overview
The crucial role played by the human element in maritime safety has been formally recognised in new international requirements concerning the management of safety on board ships and in shore offices and the training and qualification of seafarers. The effective implementation of these requirements will constitute a major challenge to the shipping industry well into the next century. They concern the mandatory introduction of the International Safety Management Code (ISM Code) as from mid-1998 and the transition to the comprehensively revised International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW 95), which entered into force on 1 February 1997.
The MASIS II Project, which commenced in January 1996, aims to
contribute to wider understanding of:
- The role of the human element in emergency situations
- Organisational models to enhance the attractiveness of working at sea.
- Management structures for shipowners and ship operators
- Workplace design requirements that are ergonomically justified
- Performance standards relating to shipboard procedural guidelines
Specific MASIS II activities include:
- Assessing remedial measures for enhanced efficiency of crew responses in emergency situations
- Defining the specific operational requirements for multi-cultural crews
- Developing procedures and communication protocols for the management of crises
- Developing new employment/organisational models to attract people to a sea-going career
- Introducing new concepts of management structures for shipowners and ship operators
- Identifying ergonomic ship design requirements for a reduction of operator workload and an improvement of his comfort and alertness
- Designing a crisis management workstation for the ship bridge
- Developing a case study for the application of the ISM Code
- Facilitating the importance ranking of shipboard procedures based on risk-based methods
- Producing exemplary shipboard procedural guidelines