Supremacy of MOLMI’s safety culture evident at seminar

‘Safe, secure and efficient shipping on cleaner oceans’, may appear to be seafarers’ mantra for a long and fruitful career in shipping, but Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Maritime (India) Pvt. Ltd. has gone a step further inculcating a superior safety culture. This was evident at the recent three-day conference held at Hotel Le Royal Meridien, Mumbai from November 20 to 22, 2008.
Extending an enthusiastic welcoming to the guests and the participants to the three-day programme Capt Abhijit Chattopadhyay, director & CEO of Mitsui O.S.K.Lines Maritime (India) Pvt Ltd outlined the programme details and the background of the speakers. “Safety and security is the uppermost in the minds of everyone,” he said. “With regard the piracy that has been taking place we received very good news in this morning’s papers that the Indian Navy had destroyed the mother vessel from which the Somalian pirates have been launching their attack. This certainly is very good news.” Capt Chattopadhyay went on to explain how the seminar would be conducted and how each participant would benefit from it.
In a convincing address to the floating staff at the inauguration of this annual programme, Mr S Yamada, president, MOLSHIP (J) drove home his sincere concern for his seafarers by stating, “MOL cannot develop if you don’t develop safety, which is one major factor that can help customers. You are safe by thinking ahead of time in this regard. MOL has taken the lead by moving ahead and bringing in “MOL Spirit” the training vessel on which cadets who are trained get treated as one of MOL’s own family.”

He stressed that MOL will strive to maximize corporate value by always being creative, continually pursuing higher operating efficiency and promoting an open and visible management style that is guided by the highest ethical and social standards. He assured that despite the worldwide recession, no one in MOL needs to worry and everyone’s job is secure as long as everyone performed well. MOL would take delivery of the new buildings as scheduled, he concluded.

Capt. Soichi Hiratsuka, managing executive officer, Mitsui O.S.K Lines was the chief guest at the seminar. Delivering his keynote address on the second day of the seminar he declared that MOL would continue to expand its fleet to ensure long term contracts with many top - rank customers. He stressed that the seafarers were the assets of the company.

Unfolding ten typical case studies of avoidable accidents, Capt M Kato, general manager, Co-ordination brought home the point that it is necessary to get down to basics to avoid accidents. He categorised each of the accidents in order to bring home to bear the different situations leading to such accidents. Even though several of them could be classed as freak cases, he explained how and why they could have been avoided.

The basic target of the management is ‘the 6th zero’ to ensure zero casualties, in every aspect including crew, vessel, cargo, zero oil spill and gas emissions, stated Capt BS Tracy, dgm, NAS, Hongkong. “Safety is a way of life,” he stressed. “A continuous enhancement of seafarers’ skill and development of his operational approach can help to factor in safety. More than the safety of cargo, one’s own safety is of paramount importance.”

Giving the seafarer’s perspective on safety, Capt RK Sharma advocated prevention as being better than cure. He pointed out that stress and fatigue were tending to be a major cause of accidents. Automation was no doubt being brought in to help the seafarers yet, he preferred that more stress be given to training; creation of awareness and better supervision to avoid accidents. “Long before anyone could suggest it, MOL was the first to implement NOX and SOC emission standards even though it was not made mandatory,” he said.

Group Leader of Marine Safety Group, MOLMI, Capt JS Kanwar, gave a presentation on ‘Support to enhance Safety & Maintenance’. MOLMI inspections started in August 2005 he informed, and that the MOL inspector goes about doing inspections which actually help to prevent accidents and improve a ship’s condition by improving maintenance and conditions on board is in no way meant to point a finger at anyone.

“Anything human cannot be foolproof,” according to Capt A Hore, manager, MOLMI while delivering his talk on ‘Accidents – Human Aspects’. “But we can tell what needs to be done and how it can be rectified.” He went on to explain how accidents are caused and the major role played by human beings.

The power of team-work coupled with professional focusing skills and the passion of team enabled goals to be achieved: to avoid accidents, disasters and oil spills was the crux of the presentation made by Mr H Kubo, md, MOL TANKSHIP Management (Asia) Pte Ltd. Singapore. His speech was followed by a presentation by Capt M Kato, gm, Co-ordination Division, MOLSHIP (J) on ‘What good seamanship is’. He brought out the good qualities of a seafarer stating, “A good seafarer ensures safe operations, keeping the environment clean and ensuring efficient operations. To ensure these qualities one has to constantly improve knowledge, skill and efficiency, improve shore management and be well informed.”

Bringing out another aspect of safety, Mr Khalil Al-Balushi, dpa & cso, OSMC Muscat, in his presentation spoke about ‘The Seafarer’s contribution to ship management quality’. He stressed the need to raise safety awareness on board, improve safety management systems, the TMSA status of the company, the ship-shore flow information and to address environmental issues on shipping.

Going yet deeper on improving the safety aspect Capt BS Tracy projected ‘The Alignment Module’. Alignment is a condition which is reached when everyone in an organisation is working consciously towards the same shared vision and goal. Organisation alignment is linking strategy, culture process, people, leadership and system – to best accomplish the needs of a company.

There were presentations made on ‘Statistical Analysis Assessment of Incidents’ by Mr M Kobyashi, gm, Marine Safety Group, MOL; on MOL LNG Europe by Mr Hugh Landels – manager, Manning & Training of MOL LNG (Europe) and on ‘Modern Propulsion Options’ by Mr SK Singh, manager MOLMI.

Another interesting presentation was made by Capt AK Dass, manager, Training MOLMI. He pointed out that 80% to 95% of all accidents were triggered by unsafe behaviour which tends to interact with other weaknesses inherent in work flow process or present in the working environment. He threw light on conventional ways of accident analysis, BBS way of unsafe behaviour monitoring and modifications, and why people behave unsafely. He explained how we can stop people behaving unsafely.

Workshops conducted during the seminar provided plenty of opportunities for interaction among the participants. Besides, the question and answer sessions at the end of each presentation brought out many issues which seafarers experience and these were satisfactorily clarified. In all around 80 marine officers attended the seminar including captains, chief engineers, and other officers. The three-day programme concluded with cocktails and dinner held on November 21, at the Royal Gardens, ITC Hotel - The Grand Maratha.

Capt. B. K. Jha, General Manager MOLMI gave the vote of thanks. He extended his delightful thanks to all the officers and guests for making the programme a grand success and for their keen interests in the presentations and in posing questions which helped to make the programme interactive and meaningful. He also thanked the participants for the feedback which they submitted and assured them that their views and ideas would be implemented in the future programmes.