The need to maintain and foster a company wide safety culture is of paramount importance in the compliance driven industry representing the maritime community. Through the framework of the International Safety Management (ISM) Code and the vessel Safety Management System (SMS) an interactive dedication to safety first attitude must be pervasive through all aspects and levels of company operations. All too often the quality system is morphed into a punitive vehicle which crewmembers are fearful of utilizing as designed for fear of reprisals. In order to create an ecosystem of idea sharing and pulling toward the common goal of zero lost time injuries (LTI’s) all personnel, both afloat and ashore, need to be fully invested in the safety culture ideal.
GHSSES endeavor’s to tear down the walls separating shore and afloat personnel to create a true team atmosphere. Ships crews are instructed to identify and report problems and concerns. Shore managers are taught how to accept the information without concern of blame assignment in order to prevent adversarial relationships from developing between the teams ashore and the teams afloat. This ideal MUST BE fostered by the SMS.
The need to utilize our best tool, the SMS, to create a safety climate is self explanatory. The short term costs, always a consideration, however, if one major calamity is avoided the program will far exceed any up front costs incurred.
Solid implementation practices where anyone can stop an unsafe act (stop work authority), question authority and break the error chain is not a natural act for subordinates and needs to be developed through repeated training and positive reinforcement.
Professional services offered by GHSSES can provide third party auditing, plan review / implementation and customization to meet and exceed industry and regulatory requirements. More importantly, GHSSES can create a living document that can be embraced by the end users to improve operational efficiency and safety at the same time.