Page 20: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 2005)

20 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News

Guidelines on Management for the Safe

Operation of Ships and for Pollution

Prevention. This guidance formed the basis of the ISM Code, which came into force on July 1, 1998. Since then, the industry as a whole has become better at managing its business from a safety management point of view, and there is now a general culture of safety which did not exist before the introduction of the ISM Code.

Increasing legislation: Over the past 20 years, political pressure on the shipping industry has continued to mount, gener- ally sparked by major maritime inci- dents causing loss of life or pollution.

The Exxon Valdez incident and the introduction of OPA90 by the U.S. set a precedent for unilateral regulation which continues now in the wake of

Erika and Prestige in the EU. Whereas in the past the industry was in the main reactive, it is now beginning to take a more proactive stance by regulating itself more effectively and working to ensure that those regulations already in place are properly enforced.

Far Eastern shipbuilding: The emer- gence of first Korea and now China as major shipbuilding nations has seen a dramatic shift in the global maritime industry. Although Europe retains some shipbuilding activity, large-scale, high- output new construction has inevitably migrated to the Far East due to lower labor costs and sophisticated technolo- gy. As Korean yards begin to concen- trate on higher-value ships such as LNG tankers and large container ships,

Chinese yards are enhancing their abili- ty to build ships such as general cargo ships, bulk carriers, container feeder ships and tankers in series. With the expansion of existing yard facilities and the proposed construction of new ship- yards on greenfield sites, some believe that China may become the world's lead- ing shipbuilding nation by 2015.

How has the role of the classification socie- ty evolved to help implement these changes?

ABS: Classification standards are con- stantly evolving as a result of in-service experience, expanded research and more sophisticated analytical tools, particular- ly the rapid increase in computing power available to the classification society researcher and engineer. An example of this continuing evolution is the current trend towards incorporating sophisticated risk assessment method- ologies into the classification rule mak- ing process, drawing on techniques that were originally pioneered with the nuclear industry. Just as importantly has been the expansion of classification society responsibilities into the realm of human factors. This began with the introduction of the ISM Code, which saw class assuming auditing responsibil- ities for safety management systems.

More recently, it has been further expanded with the introduction of the

ISPS (Ship and Port Security) Code.

And at ABS we have taken these respon- sibilities a step further by establishing guidelines for the application of ergonomics and human factors engi- neering to marine facilities and systems.

These standards address issues as diverse as the optimal layout of the nav- igation bridge to the influence that light- ing and vibration can have on crew per- formance.

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Class Society Q&A

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