20 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News
Guidelines on Management for the Safe
Operation of Ships and for Pollution
Prevention. This guidance formed the
basis of the ISM Code, which came into
force on July 1, 1998. Since then, the
industry as a whole has become better at
managing its business from a safety
management point of view, and there is
now a general culture of safety which
did not exist before the introduction of
the ISM Code.
Increasing legislation: Over the past 20
years, political pressure on the shipping
industry has continued to mount, gener-
ally sparked by major maritime inci-
dents causing loss of life or pollution.
The Exxon Valdez incident and the
introduction of OPA90 by the U.S. set a
precedent for unilateral regulation
which continues now in the wake of
Erika and Prestige in the EU. Whereas
in the past the industry was in the main
reactive, it is now beginning to take a
more proactive stance by regulating
itself more effectively and working to
ensure that those regulations already in
place are properly enforced.
Far Eastern shipbuilding: The emer-
gence of first Korea and now China as
major shipbuilding nations has seen a
dramatic shift in the global maritime
industry. Although Europe retains some
shipbuilding activity, large-scale, high-
output new construction has inevitably
migrated to the Far East due to lower
labor costs and sophisticated technolo-
gy. As Korean yards begin to concen-
trate on higher-value ships such as LNG
tankers and large container ships,
Chinese yards are enhancing their abili-
ty to build ships such as general cargo
ships, bulk carriers, container feeder
ships and tankers in series. With the
expansion of existing yard facilities and
the proposed construction of new ship-
yards on greenfield sites, some believe
that China may become the world's lead-
ing shipbuilding nation by 2015.
How has the role of the classification socie-
ty evolved to help implement these
changes?
ABS: Classification standards are con-
stantly evolving as a result of in-service
experience, expanded research and more
sophisticated analytical tools, particular-
ly the rapid increase in computing
power available to the classification
society researcher and engineer. An
example of this continuing evolution is
the current trend towards incorporating
sophisticated risk assessment method-
ologies into the classification rule mak-
ing process, drawing on techniques that
were originally pioneered with the
nuclear industry. Just as importantly has
been the expansion of classification
society responsibilities into the realm of
human factors. This began with the
introduction of the ISM Code, which
saw class assuming auditing responsibil-
ities for safety management systems.
More recently, it has been further
expanded with the introduction of the
ISPS (Ship and Port Security) Code.
And at ABS we have taken these respon-
sibilities a step further by establishing
guidelines for the application of
ergonomics and human factors engi-
neering to marine facilities and systems.
These standards address issues as
diverse as the optimal layout of the nav-
igation bridge to the influence that light-
ing and vibration can have on crew per-
formance.
BV: Class is more vital than ever to safe
and efficient shipping, simply because
class is the only place where there is
7 7 % , 6 6 2
3 U R Y L G L Q J 2 3 $ &