Page 42: of Maritime Logistics Professional Magazine (Q2 2012)

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42 | Maritime Professional | 2Q 2012

Despite all the technical advances that have brought us into the 21st century, too many people are still injured and killed when working on board ship and alongside during loading op- erations. Crew, stevedores and visitors to ships are all at risk.

After much study and only after in-depth trials with specifi c shipowners, the UK P&I Club has launched an innovative risk management scheme utilising a ‘Bow Tie’ approach to identi- fying areas of risk and minimising the occurrence of incidents.

How it Works

The UK Club works with its Member shipowners and tech- nical managers to identify the various threats to the smooth, i.e. claim-free, running of their vessels, conducting reviews onboard to identify those areas which may cause claims. The managers of the UK Club, Thomas Miller, have access to an incomparable amount of claims data drawn from extensive analysis of previous incidents over more than 20 years. This has enabled the Club to identify ‘threats’, ‘consequences’ and ‘controls’, the foundations of developing Bow Tie reports on individual vessels.

As an example, the Club says that on one vessel, a Panamax bulk carrier, fi ve ‘hazards’ were selected as being the most frequent liability claim areas seen by the Club. These were: • Crew hazardous activities – these can lead to personal injuries that in a worst case scenario, could be fatal; • Carriage of cargo by sea – the level of cargo damage claims can be reduced given the full cooperation of crews; • Ship in transit – collision/grounding damage – which clearly can cause injuries and even fatalities; • Ship/crew actions – third party property damage – which again can be reduced if the crew and management exercise proper care and follow the correct procedures; • Carriage of pollutants by sea – pollution damage – which matters to anyone who cares about the environment – or the cost to the insurers!

Following an extensive on-board survey, ’threats’ relating to all fi ve hazards were assessed, ‘controls’ that needed at- tention were identifi ed and recommendations for changes in working practices were proposed to the master and owner/ manager. The diagram that is used to depict the threats and consequences hazards, and which is prepared for each ship in the programme to be used as a tool for managing the risks, takes the form of a butterfl y or a Bow Tie, hence the name: ‘Bow Tie’ diagram. Bow Tie diagrams are used in many dif- ferent industries, not just shipping, to assist in the manage- ment of risk.

When it comes to applying the Bow Tie concept to ships, the

UK Club has identifi ed seven primary risk hazards; 76 com- mon threats, which if not contained could cause an incident; and 450 controls which need to be in place and effective if the threats are to be contained. Although sixty per cent of UK

Club claims are caused by ‘human error’, human error is often only ‘the straw that breaks the camel’s back’ – the last event in a chain of events.

These events can normally be traced back to failures in one or more areas of ship operation. The Club sometimes refers to them as ‘accidents waiting to happen’.

Claims insights combine with practical advice

How can a ship operator reduce the frequency of these ‘acci- dents waiting to happen’? What ‘controls’ should he be look- ing at to ensure the ’threat’ is contained and an ‘incident’ does not occur?”

When explaining the BowTie methodology, the UK Club usually cites ‘the Tiger in the Cage’ example. Clearly a tiger in a cage is a hazard but it is perfectly safe unless someone forgets to do something – like entering the cage to clean it without ensuring the tiger is securely shut behind another gate or by simply by not securing the main cage door after it has been opened and closed. Set procedures need to be followed if the tiger is not to escape.

A more practical shipping example however is slips, trips and falls among personnel. These represent nearly one in three of the large personal injury claims submitted to the UK

Club. Such claims totalled a staggering $155 m over the past ten years.

As Karl Lumbers, the Club’s Risk Management Director explains, “It is easy to dismiss these unpleasant accidents as ‘human error’ or even ‘crew negligence’. There is often an assumption that people ‘can look after themselves’ and must take responsibility for their own actions. But to examine the detail of so many of them is to reveal other contributors to the chain of causation.”

In the case of slips, trips and falls, the environment, which is mostly a function of design, may well have been a contribu- tor: if there was inadequate lighting, if the dangers were not obvious, or the particular design of the ship required people to put themselves in hazardous situations just to get the job done.

Visitors to the ship unfamiliar with the layout of the vessel are especially vulnerable. “They are constant too with very little variation in numbers of claims from year to year. They are important because they represent genuine pain and suffering from people who have been injured or even killed because they have slipped, tripped or fallen aboard ship. It is not simply money, squashed metal or damaged ships as encountered in other sorts of claim,” adds

RISK MANAGEMENT

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