Denise B. McCafferty

Accident precursors and safety nets: Leading indicators of tanker operations safety

Leading indicators, one type of accident precursor, are conditions, events or measures that precede an undesirable event and that have some value in predicting the arrival of the event, whether it is an accident, incident, near miss, or undesirable safety state. Leading indicators are associated with proactive activities that identify hazards and assess, eliminate, minimize and control risk. An empirical analysis of leading indicators of safety for an international energy transportation company was undertaken, utilizing a previously validated research model. Quantitative safety performance and qualitative safety culture data were obtained from 943 participants on 37 vessels from three fleets in the organization. Organizational, vessel and individual safety factors and leading indicators were identified and an analysis of fleet, vessel, and individual safety cultures was undertaken. The results indicate that individual and vessel-level leading indicators can provide important input to an organizations continuous safety measuring and monitoring systems.

Crew Habitability on Offshore Installations: Comprehensive Guidance

In order to meet energy needs the search for oil and gas has led into deeper and deeper water. With installations located farther from shore, the length of stay aboard for crews could also increase. Long stays offshore can challenge crew mental and physical fitness levels which may impact productivity, performance, and safety. To maintain appropriate fitness levels, crews must be provided with properly designed accommodations and workspaces with favorable ambient environmental factors. ABS has developed a comprehensive guide that integrates human factors, ergonomics, and habitability data with accommodations design criteria. The subject of this paper is the production of such a guide, the ABS Guide for Crew Habitability on Offshore Installations, it’s criteria and measurement methodologies.Copyright

Human Factors Modifications to a Pre-Existing Alarm System

Among the constraints impinging on enhancement were size and placement of the annunciator tiles. The existing system predetermined the size of alarm tiles, the number of tiles per annunciator matrix, and the placement of the matrices. Window size influenced the possible character density per tile. Character density was viewed with special attention given to readability requirements for the operating station distance. Additional constraints were: to minimize the number of annunciator relocations and to, where appropriate, accommodate pre-existing color and coding schemes.