Page 43: of Marine News Magazine (July 2011)

www.marinelink.com MN43mation, equipment, and people. Not all resources have the same value in a given situation, therefore resource man- agement is a prioritizing function: sometimes collisionavoidance is more important than position fixing so we utilize our resources accordingly. Sometimes a radio conversation is helpful, but other times it is a distraction, so we allocate effort accordingly. Managing resources entails verifying information by cross- referencing: does a GPS position agree with ranges and bearings? Is that buoy on station? Though the bridge ten- der has hailed you through, do your eyes tell you that the bridge is fully raised? Resource management involves using the right information source at the right time. Managing resources includes managing people ? teams. Teams offer the ability to distribute workload, which, in theory, means a team can do more than an individual functioning alone. But if a team is poorly managed ? with poor communication, ill-defined responsibilities, and uncoordinated efforts ? it can actually make matters worse. Occasionally we hear about how some aspect of BRM doesnt square with how things are done in the real world.? This is surely true on all types of vessels. But we mustnt forget that the real world also includes insurance claims, admiralty court, death, injury and license suspen- sion. Sometimes BRM must be tailored to the way things are done, but other times the whole point is to change the way things are being done. Also, the real world changes under our feet. Methods that are gospel at the outset of a career may be history by the end. Just as the notion of what constitutes a safe? operation evolves, so does our approach to resource management. There will always be accidents, even catastrophes. Mariners deal with a tough environment, and there are odds at work. Well-run vessels have accidents and close calls; poorly run vessels have more. Since human error plays such a large role in this fact, it stands to reason that if you have a better under- standing of normal human fallibility, you can improve your odds. Effective BRM cannot guarantee success, but when combined with the rest of our professional training and experience, BRM provides a wider horizon for seeing how things can go wrong aboard, and how to defend against human error. MARINE ENGINES ? 2 & 4 STROKE? MAIN & AUXILIARY ENGINES & SPARES We specialize in Bergen - Normo andWärtsilä Engines/Spares?MARKET