On 8 November, Wallem Ship Management Ltd held a fleet officers’ meeting to discuss vital questions with their officers. It was a good opportunity for sea and shore staff to share their experiences, thoughts, and current and future plans. More than 40 seafarers and representatives of the Company gathered at the meeting in one of the most beautiful halls in Odessa.
Nataliia Shevchuk, Representative- East Europe, greeted the audience and introduced the management of the Company and guests. Among the representatives of the Company were: Captain David Price, Managing Director of Wallem Ship Management, Hong Kong; Captain Fared Khan, Marine Director of Wallem Ship Management, Hong Kong; Nataliia Shevchuk, Representative, East Europe; Gurleen Dhir, Associate Manager, Fleet Personnel Operations; Captain Oleksiy Chepok, Wallem Ship Management Ukraine; and Olexandr Vovk, Wallem Ship Management Ukraine.
Captain David Price, Managing Director of Wallem Ship Management, started the meeting by explaining the managing directors’ expectations. He presented the audience some photos and asked how all those accidents could have been prevented. The management of the Company cares about all the seafarers and wants them to return home at the end of their contracts, so such meetings need to be held to discuss the problems so that those mistakes can be prevented in the future.
“My expectations are zero accidents”, said Mr. Price. “I want you to go on board, complete your contracts and then go home safely to your families,” he added.
The next speaker – Captain Fared Khan, Marine Director of the Wallem Ship Management – talked about a road map to safety and operational excellence. The safety vision of the Company is:
- Zero injuries;
- Zero spills;
- Zero accidents.
To achieve these goals proper procedures need to be followed; transparency, root cause analysis; compliance road map, and pursuing a positive safety culture.
Captain Fared Khan also presented Wallem’s safety rules which include:
- Compliance with the Safety Management System
- Wearing Personal Protective Equipment;
- Working with Valid Work Permit when required;
- Conducting Gas Tests as required;
- Verifying Isolation of System before commencing work;
- Obtaining Authorization before entering an enclosed space;
- Obtaining Authorization before overriding or disabling critical safety equipment;
- Protecting against fall while working aloft or over side;
- Not walking under a suspended load;
- Not smoking outside designated areas and follow drug & alcohol policy.
Mr. Olexandr Vovk had a speech regarding injury prevention. He focused on means of preventing personal injury, such as:
- Increased situational and safety awareness;
- Different safety cultural background;
- Crush injury is of concern;
- Slip, trip and falls on hard surfaces;
- Mindful on safety awareness;
- Compliance with safety procedures – no shortcuts!
“Safety is the responsibility of each person on board. The real enemy is non-thinking”, added Mr. Vovk.
Incorrect use and wearing of PPE must be immediately stopped. It is a responsibility of everyone on board. The Industry gives a wide variety of safety tools and PPE.
Also, there are tools for improving safety were presented:
- Good pre-planning with safety awareness;
- Risk assessment and control measures;
- Effective toolbox meeting – discussion & closed loop;
- Daily safety moment – after lunch;
- Boots on deck – Master and C/E;
- Stop work responsibility;
- BBS program – Notice Unsafe condition and unsafe acts;
- Buddy system;
- Permit to work;
- Lock out tag out system;
- Evaluation of risk assessment.
“Safety is everybody’s job. Together we have the power to improve safety”, said Mr. Vovk. Achieving safety and operational excellence is not only a matter of competence and training but also of attitude and mindset:
- Safety mindset;
- Proper attitude and proactive safety;
- To be engaged and motivated;
- Ownership and pride;
- Proper experience;
- Leadership;
- Management skills;
- Well trained.
Captain Oleksiy Chepok, continued the meeting with a speech and talked about commercial and technical excellence.
He asked not to confuse Perfection and Excellence. The gap between “excellent” and “perfection” is narrow at a glance, but to bridge that narrow gap usually are consumed in a very inefficient manner. Achieving excellence means performing at the sustained and increasing momentum – which is an onboard requirement.
“Operational excellence is related to how we do our everyday job in order to achieve Company’s objectives. Excellence does not occur at random. Focus on the problems, identify the weakness and plan the improvement”, noted Mr. Chepok.
Then the seafarers took part in a workshop regarding safety and operational excellence.
Mr. David Price presented the closing remarks at the end of the meeting and discussed the main messages of the Company:
- Your safety is your responsibility;
- No good reason of excuse for any accident;
- You have full support of WSM to do whatever it takes to ensure that jobs are done safely;
- Consider the risks carefully;
- If you don’t think a job done safely then intervene;
- Use the STOP card;
- Make sure a job is not carried out until can be done safely;
- Accidents CAN be avoided.
