The Sleeping Beauty

THE SLEEPING BEAUTY

INTRODUCTION

Man is a genius in inventing technology, but not so good in handling the ‘baggage’ of negative impacts which ‘technology’ brings along. It is important to note that Red Riding Hood in her ordeal with the wolf did manage to save herself and her grandmother. She also learnt a lesson, which was ‘never to dawdle with strangers in the forest’. However man seems to be lagging behind in the Eco1 race with nature and has not fully learnt his lesson. This is manifested by the following:

•Damage to the ozone layer and the increased emission of ‘Green house gases (GHG’s)’. This has resulted in harmful radiations from the sun and global warming respectively.

•The creation of ‘plastic’ a non bio-degradable waste has resulted in environmental problems caused by the poor disposal and ‘life cycle’ management of plastic waste.

The discovery of oil a cheap power source has resulted in progress but has also resulted in several negative impacts on society, these being – increased emissions of GHG’s and the depletion of the ozone layer. It must have taken nature millions of years to convert fossil remains into ‘oil energy’ or fossil fuels, but has a study from a competent and independent agency been carried out to assess what could be the environmental impacts resulting from empty wells?


The Maritime industry too has been no different.

History has shown us that we in the shipping industry are weak in visualizing the effects of technology and development. We seem to take action only after we have a major disaster as evidenced by:

•We waited for the Titanic to sink before we thought of a legislation to enhance safety of life at sea.
•A major oil spill in 1967 of the coast of England made us legislate the control of discharge of oil/oil products at sea to help protect our environment.
•The US Oil Pollution Act of 1990 was passed only after the Exxon Valdez disaster.


ISSUE

To help improve safety and protection of the marine environment the International Maritime Organisation has implemented several maritime conventions through member states. These include the SOLAS, MARPOL and STCW conventions.

It however failed to keep up the momentum and started falling back. With greater realization of damages such as the Ozone layer, GHG and the Global warming, the world moved from ‘Pollution Protection’ of 1980’s to ‘Environment Improvement and resource conservation’. The Marine regulations however did not change with times. Even today Ships are permitted to throw their wastes into the sea, which includes recyclable items such as ‘Paper, Metal, Cardboard, Etc’. They can also incinerate their ‘Virgin Plastic’ (mineral bottles) wastes, which also could be recycled, not to mention the increase in GHG resulting from incineration and the fuel wasted.

Few know that the ISM Code which ushered in 1998 was a child crafted out from the mother code ISO 9001 (1987). While the mother code ISO 9001 evolved with continuous changes in 1994, 2000 & recently in 2008 and improving each time the ISM code, however did not. Whilst both ISO and ISM were designed to implement a ‘Management System’ the former which was optional was accepted across all ‘economies’ in the world, the latter was seen by Ship-owners as a burden and was rejected even before its birth. The key reason perhaps is that while ISO added an all round value ISM focussed only ‘safety’.

The ISM code requires to be more intelligently crafted in a manner such that even an average Shipping Company with limited resources is able to improve its ‘bottom lines’ whilst endeavouring to comply with regulations. Instead what is happening today is Shipping Companies with short term visions are more often than not manoeuvring in a manner so as to project a compliance on ‘paper’ since they are unable to derive benefits or improve ‘bottom lines’ with the existing management system practices.

On the contrary shore based industries, small and big, who adopted the ‘spirit’ of the ISO standards of Quality, Environment and Health & Safety, including Social accountability have seen significant organizational improvements year on year. Whilst they have moved on to other improvement tools such as Kaizen, Lean Sigma etc, we in the shipping industry are still struggling with an out-dated code.

•1987: ISO 9001 standard was created as a Management system to address requirements of a Company, its suppliers and its customers.

•1993: The ISM Code was launched as a Management system tool and was intended to be used as an ‘umbrella’ standard. The code was developed using the ISO 9001 standard as a template.

•1996: The ISO 14001 Environmental Management System was launched.

•1999: The OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health & Safety Management System was launched.

•2002: The ISM Code was first revised. The revision was insignificant as it failed to address ‘global issues’ such as improvement of marine environment, resource conservation, occupational health and social responsibility and the current significant issues.

Due to this, most ships today still follow a code which may be irrelevant in relation to the way businesses are managed today, keeping in mind the impact on Environment, Society, Customers and Share-holders. Gradually and inadvertently this retarded the ‘Intellectual Progress’ of the maritime industry.

It is evident that the ISM code is a thing of the past in the tanker market as oil majors have developed their own systems of ship vetting etc., to assist them in balancing their ‘risks’.

The Shore based non-maritime industries even in developing economies understand better the importance of Quality, Customer, Supplier, Environment & Resource conservation and how these could improve the bottom line. Even a school child understands ‘Environment’ better than a Ship’s Master and Shipping Company’s Manager.
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In this regard the, IMO Secretary General Efthimios Mitropoulos said that “few, if any, will be immune from the consequences of the global financial crisis in 2009. Maintaining their determination to provide quality to customers, is the only way people involved in shipping could emerge from the slump unscathed and flourish in the better times to follow”. This is the ‘Golden truth’. How well does it go down with the ISM Code which has been the guiding beacon for the shipping industry for last 11 years? If we read the ISM code and the revised guidelines we find some interesting facts:

•The word ‘Safety’ appears 202 times, vis-à-vis the word ‘Quality’ which is not mentioned at all. The code ignores ‘Quality’ which is a must for the survival of any business or work process.

•Environment, thankfully is mentioned 12 times of which 7 times it is ‘protection of the environment’ and remaining 5 times ‘Marine Environment’. The ISO 14001 ushered in 1996 revolves around ‘Improvement of the Environment’ and the ‘Protection of the Environment’.

•The word ‘Prevention’ figures 22 times of which:
- It appears 21 times as ‘Pollution prevention’ and
- Once as Prevention of human injury

•The word ‘Improvement’ does not appear in the code.
- Continual Improvement is the ‘Hall mark’ of every progressive Organization.

•The word ‘Health’ has no appearance. The world adopted Occupational Health & Safety Standards in 1999 (OHSAS 18001:1999).


SOLUTIONS

· Improving the Quality in the way we manage our systems & processes and
· Improving the skills and competence of personnel who are responsible for managing these systems and processes
· Use the 8 Management principles in crafting a Management system code and ensure that the ‘code’ is kept in a dynamic mode and changed with the changing needs of the shipping industry, its global customers and stake holders.

Ship owners

•Don’t necessarily do what the neighbours did. If they are wrong, so will you be. Implement a management system for your company that can help you continually improve the way you do your business, using best business practices to help improve quality, resource management and occupational health and safety issues.

•Read the simple 8 Management Principles, which are applicable for any ‘Business or profit centre’ small or big... Innovate and craft a ‘new’ principle each year.

-The Management must have the will to improve the Quality of Management with an eye on long-term gains and not the short term ‘mirage like’ benefits.

•Reward the performers in your organization and not those who ‘present’ performance.

•Do not see ‘Environment, Safety, Health and Quality’ issues as an expense; see it as an investment for driving benefits and improving ‘bottom line’.
- Wait for 3 years before you harvest your first crop and
- Then harvest each year as you grow from strength to strength

•Think of long term gains and avoid ‘quick fix’ short term solutions.

•Give back to the society a small share of what you earn.

Regulators

Think of the future and out of the box. You too have a Customer. See what are your customer needs, else you will loose them to Oil Majors and the likes. Be dynamic, visionary and change with changing times.

•Demand change and improvement. Because nature is changing every moment.

•Create a Management System standard code of practice which is comprehensive and has a futuristic outlook.

•Have three levels of compliance, Basic, Advanced and Superlative not in terms of their level of compliance, but a degree of what they actually benefitted from the ‘compliance’ thus creating a culture of deriving benefit rather than just ‘paper’ compliance.

•Change the entire concept of audit & inspections: The normal tendency for any person/organization is to ‘cover up’ mistakes. The real truth is ‘we all make mistakes’. So encourage declaration of mistakes or non-conformances. See what action was taken. The ‘Quality’ of their submission and the actions would determine the ‘Quality’ of their system. Thus making the audit exercise more transparent and meaningful for both parties.

•Get feedbacks from the industry, from the grass root and users and not necessarily the Ship owners/ Managers office.

•Reward people who come out with suggestions.

•Use specialists and experienced persons particularly when it comes to creating soft issues such as ‘standards and management system practices’.

•Audits must result in a ‘value addition’ exercise and not just a defect or finger pointing exercise.

Is this the end of the road for the Shipping industry? Or is it a beginning of a new era? Could we sit in the time machine and move forward and think more pragmatically on the above issues, think more progressively, with a futuristic out-look.

What do figures like 3% of the GHG emission (contribution from the shipping industry) really mean to a ship owner? But if one was to tell him, get your ‘act’ straight and you could save a few hundred thousand dollars, perhaps this would ring a bell. Ship owners need to change their perception of codes and management practices such as the ISM, ISO 9001 Quality, ISO 14001 Environment, ISO 18001 Occupational Health & Safety from as ‘a problem’, or just as a ‘compliance issue’ and an ‘expense’ to ‘AN INVESTMENT’ which certainly would harvest returns which they have not been able to fathom so far.


Capt. Naveen S Singhal &
Capt. Ashok Mulloth
Singapore

Tel: +65 92305643 Email: singhal.ns@gmail.com