Safety Security

Role of a Superintendent
Role of a Superintendent
Health Environment
Role of a Superintendent in Safety Management
Safety management theory tells us how work should be done while practice shows us how
work is actually carried out. The difference between theory and practice shows in the form
of accidents, losses, injuries other undesired events.

Accidents and undesired events happen because:

• insuficient time to carry out a task – time constraint

• lack of desire to do things right – poor attitude

• inability - lack of skill

A superintendent must make the gap between theory and practice as small as possible,
provide quality work and contribute to the lasting proitability of the company. Decisions
made or not made and actions taken or not taken by the superintendent contribute to the
occurrence of the unwanted events.

For example, by ixing too tight a schedule for completion of a job or by directly or in-
directly creating working conditions or systems in which a failure of one person may
sometimes mean the destruction or collapse of the entire system.

A good management system should ensure proper design and purchasing through proper
planning and prevent undue work pressure that sets the stages for errors, accidents and
losses.

Management should ensure that people know what is expected of them, right training is
provided, accidents and incidents are properly analyzed and effective action is taken to
prevent recurrence, adequate inspections are carried out and maintenance of equipment
and installations is properly done.

The management system links the superintendent, providing the leadership, with the ship’s
crew, working together to achieve results and closing the gap between theory and practice.
The superintendent has the greatest inluence in ensuring success.

Lasting success can only be obtained by establishing structure in the activities needed
control undesired events and not by ad-hoc actions triggered by actual problems.

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 Safety Security
Role of a Superintendent
Role of a Superintendent
Health Environment
Accident chain
management and organization – substandard management system including
policy, criteria and compliance

basic causes – substandard personal and job factors

direct causes – substandard acts and conditions

incident – undesired event

losses – people, equipment, material and environment

Safety management can change the chain from an accident chain to a success chain.

Success – coming from desired events – originating from the right acts and conditions –
based on the right personal and job factors – which originates from the right management
systems.

Desired events
Success comes from desired events, the things you want to happen. It is carrying out
work that is largely problem free and with only those incidents which were assessed in
advance and accepted. The problems which can (and sometimes will) occur are known
and appropriate measures have been taken to prevent as well as to cope with potential
consequences.

Right acts and conditions

Desired events evolve from right acts and right work conditions, done by people who know
what to do and the risks involved; who know how to prevent potential problems and how to
act in case something may go wrong. Right acts and right work conditions are the results of
proper selection and training, right design, adequate purchasing, proper maintenance and
motivation.

Right Personal and Job Factors

Right personal factors include:

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 Safety Security
Role of a Superintendent
Role of a Superintendent
Health Environment
• physically and mentally to carry out the work

• right knowledge, experience and skills

• work without undue stress

• properly (self-)motivated to do what is necessary

Right job factors include:

• adequate management and supervision

• making proper decisions and obtaining the best results

• proper design and modiication of work areas, installations, processes

• purchasing/procurement of the right products, equipment, services, etc

• adequate maintenance

• availability of the right equipment

• proper methods of operation and work

Right management system

Lasting success in safety management can be achieved by adopting a management system
that will include combined activities to prevent undesired events and also limit loss, should
prevention fail. These should be identiication and correction of deviations in the various
phases of the “Loss - Causation” model which could lead to adverse effects (ie accidents,
damage, losses).

A proper system for loss control can be implemented when:

• activities for success in safety and loss control have been identiied

• adequate minimum performance criteria have been established for these activities

• activities to control the execution of activities to ensure that performance criteria and
objectives are met

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 Safety Security
Role of a Superintendent
Role of a Superintendent
Health Environment
• a process of periodic measurement, evaluation, feedback, correction, etc leading to
desired results is established.

Building blocks
The supporting building blocks for an effective safety management system are

• Plan – identiication and establishment of activities and criteria necessary to do things

in the right way and produce the desired results - implementing safety management
system and ship speciic procedures after assessing risk.

• Train – development of ship staff in relation to the work to obtain those results - it
includes general introduction training, speciic training for staff to properly carry out
the activities required by the plan.

• Do - execution of the activities in accordance with criteria set, until the desired results
have been obtained, doing the right things in the right way will lead to desired results
and success.

The superintendent’s leadership is the foundation for the above, the basic driving force of the
improvement process.

Plan

Level of Safety
Performance

Do Train

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 Safety Security
Role of a Superintendent
Role of a Superintendent
Health Environment
Work to be done – Plan
Sound planning requires consideration of leadership and administration, leadership training,
planned inspections and maintenance, critical task analysis, accident/incident analysis, job
observations, emergency preparedness, rules and work permits, knowledge and skill training,
personal protective equipment, health and hygiene control, system evaluation engineering,
communications, hiring and placement, and materials and services management.

Execution of activities – Do
Success can only be secured if the necessary activities are done in the right way. This
requires the discipline essential to do the required work and to keep on doing it. In particular
this requires discipline from top-management to provide enthusiastic leadership and support
to important activities. It is of great importance that these activities are being carried out as
a mutual effort of management and ship staff to obtain the desired results.

Best results can be obtained through an approach which combines top-down activity with
bottom-up involvement. Not top-down alone, as has been so often the case in the past, or a
one-sided bottom-up movement, but a combination of the two can provide the proper basis
for a lasting success.

Top-down

Leadership Plan: changing

the organization and training

Evaluation and
Feedback and review
execution and results

Bottom-up

Speciic knowledge of implementation and control of

problem in execution Motivation / emotional ownership

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 Safety Security
Role of a Superintendent
Role of a Superintendent
Health Environment
Top–down approach
The top-down approach is by following top-management’s accepted leadership role and
providing direction to the program by indicating which activities are expected to be carried
out and which training will be provided.

It includes:

• implanting a system for measurement of what is being done and evaluation in

comparison with set criteria

• providing feedback and commending people whenever possible

• making sure that undesired situations are corrected in order of priority

• asking about performance and progress at relevant meetings

• being pro-active rather than re-active

• action, not just words

Bottom Up approach
Bottom-up approach involves people at the lower end of the organization in problem solving
within their area of operation.

It includes involvement of ship staff in activities such as:

• design of installations and workplace

• identiication of workplace hazards

• identiication and analysis of “critical” tasks and the establishment of procedures

• periodic review, up-dating and/or improvement of existing procedures

• conduct of planned inspections

• analysis of accidents and incidents

• selection and use of protective equipment

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 Safety Security
Role of a Superintendent
Role of a Superintendent
Health Environment
Bottom-up involvement does not occur by itself and should be desired and brought into the
system by top-down activity by establishing effective two-way communication channels.
Prompt, correct and positive management response is necessary to problems and/or
solutions and suggestions originating from the lower levels of the organizational hierarchy.

It is of great importance that the three supporting activities (plan, train, do) are developed
in balance which each other. There must be a balance between the activities wanted by the
company, the training provided and the execution of the activities in practice.

Measuring and directing

Measuring is very important for achieving objectives in safety management. The
measurement determines where the attention goes, and, if onboard, attention is drawn to
shipstaff and their direct environment.

In present day practice, safety measurement is almost exclusively devoted to work activities
on board. Modern safety thinking requires attention on the management system and
measurement on a management level is required to get the management attention required
and to effectively manage the basic and underlying causes of accidents and other undesired
events.

Measurement of safety
Safety can be measured in three phases:

Measurement of consequences - accidents and incidents, the seriousness of the events

as well as the frequencies. Normally expressed per number of hours or days worked, but
variations are possible to present the actual losses in a different manner. They can also be
expressed as loss in inancial terms.

Measurement of direct causes - measurement of unsafe or sub-standard acts and

conditions. This involves the observation of acts and conditions and determining if
deviations from established standards exist. This measurement also provides an indication
about the effectiveness of the management system directed at prevention. It draws
attention mainly to the ship since the observations are almost always directed at ship staff
behavior and conditions onboard.

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 Safety Security
Role of a Superintendent
Role of a Superintendent
Health Environment
Measurement of control - includes the evaluation of organizational activity, of structured
efforts to prevent undesired events and to limit possible consequences. This evaluation or
safety audit takes place against a predetermined set of criteria for the various (control)
activities and draws attention to the management level. Safety audit systems are used to
carry out these management system evaluations.

The audit enables management to highlight, evaluate and improve the available control
activities, in a step-by-step manner, until the desired level of performance has been
reached. This measurement system includes those activities which are considered important
as well as the criteria for these activities which will bring success with safety and loss
control.

Within safety management these three measurements should all be used to obtain lasting
results. It is important that attention should be directed at the measurement of control,
related to the management system, as that is where management can solve underlying
problems and direct the organization on its way to success in safety.

Re-active approach
The traditional way of safety management is, if something goes wrong (an accident),
measures are taken (ire prevention and ire-ighting). This traditional way cannot provide
lasting success since it is always after an accident that action and improvement occur.

Organizations are dynamic and never static. There is constant change within the
organization as well as in the industry and outside world. Accident data of the past can
never provide an adequate basis for what will happen in the future. Moreover, accident
investigations normally stop at the unsafe acts and conditions and do not address the real
causes which are situated in the management system.

Pro-active management
Ideally, action is taken before undesired events occur. They need to establish what should
be done do to prevent accidents, incidents, etc make this dificult. It requires knowledge
and insight into the management system, as well as effort and time. More time should be
spent in analysis instead of frequently “ighting ires”.

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 Safety Security
Role of a Superintendent
Role of a Superintendent
Health Environment

The safety management system should be based on the pro-active approach. Safety audits
should be used as an important instrument to measure, establish and maintain an adequate
management control system. The re-active approach, based on accident/incident analysis is
the tool to further perfect the management system in those cases where it failed to prevent.

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