1-172 During 1988, five leading ship management companies met to discuss the possibility of improving standards within the ship management sector and the shipping industry in general. Five major and competing ship managers drafted a Code of Ship Management Standards and encouraged the formation of the International Ship Managers Association (ISMA). At its inaugural meeting in April 1991, the code was unanimously accepted. ISMA is now a company, limited by guarantee, registered in Limassol. It operates through four sub-committees covering the code, manpower supply and training, legal and insurance matters and an IMO committee.
1-173 In 1996, ISMA estimated that its membership represented in excess of 60% of the total world third party managed fleet amounting to some 2,315 vessels of just under 49 million gross tonnage of which some 47% were under full agement, 46% under crew management and 7% under some other form of man-agement. This covered 47,528 crew members currently employed and a further 18,000 (approx.) retained or on leave. Twenty-nine percent of the vessels were under a national register, a further 29% under a second or international register (eg NIS, Kerguelen, Isle of Man) and 42% under an open register.
1-174 A particular aspect of the ISMA Code is that it goes wider than the requirements of a safety or quality code and addresses the commercial business aspects of the ship manager’s relationship with the vessel owner. The comprehensive nature of the code is indicated by its coverage, embracing the following 22 subjects:
● General
● Business Ethics
● Organisation
Module 1 Quality and Audits
● Personnel
● Safety
● Environmental Protection
● Contingency Planning
● Operational Capability
● Cost Efficiency, Purchasing and Contracting
● Maintenance and Maintenance Standard
● Technical Support
● Insurance
● Accounting
● Certification and Compliance with Rules and Regulations
● Cargo Handling and Cargo Care
● Communication Procedures
● Management Agreement
● Records
● Auditing Body
● Quality System
● Document Control
● Internal Quality Audits
1-175 A major consideration is the auditing of a code which has been drawn up with the objectives of self-regulation and, in a strategic sense, marketing and busi-ness promotion. This had been solved by establishing an independent organi-sation consisting of four classification societies, American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), Det Norske Veritas (DNV), Germanischer Lloyd (GL) and Lloyd’s Register of Shipping (LR). An audit is carried out by three auditors, drawn sep-arately from each of these societies by rotation and therefore at random. The audit will be performed for the following classes of ship types:
● Container Vessels
● Bulk/Dry Cargo Vessels
● Tankers
● Gas Carriers
Quality and Audits Module 1
● Chemical Carriers
● Reefers
● Passenger Ships
● Special Types
1-176 External audits of the ISMA Code, which incorporates the requirements of ISO 9002, are valid for a period of three years, subject to annual intermediate audits.
The company is also required to establish a regime of internal audits.
SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTION
Consider what quality standard would best suit an international marine surveying company.
6. INTERNATIONAL SAFETY MANAGEMENT (ISM) CODE
LEARNING OUTCOMES
After successful completion of this chapter, you will be able to:
● outline the ISM Code and how it is implemented;
● specify the shipowner’s responsibilities under this code;
● state the meaning of safety management certificate (SMC) and document of compliance (DOC); and
● describe the standards of competence required to audit safety management systems.
6.1 THE ORIGIN AND OBJECTIVES OF THE ISM CODE
1-177 Chapters 1 and 3 outlined how merchant shipping has become increasingly complex and specialised and is increasingly governed by comprehensive rules and regulations developed by national and international authorities. At the same time, less experienced crews have been used, increasingly managed through short-term contractual, rather than established company relationships. A third influence has been the technical development of global communications capa-bility which fostered the belief in part of the industry that vessels could effectively be managed from ashore.
1-178 Many of these factors, especially in the face of continuing low freight rates, gave the illusion of lower, more competitive operating costs. The down side of this was the increase in maritime loss and damage which was increasingly attributed to
“human error” of the master and crew.
1-179 An initial reaction to this was an increase in regulations and procedures and an endeavour to implant the quality systems discussed in Chapter 5. The introduction of quality-based systems represents an advance from a culture of blame – 80%
of all accidents are caused by [your] human error – to a culture of compliance.
A culture of compliance approach requires that:
● the rules and regulations address comprehensively all the problems, dangers and challenges that may be met by a vessel during the course of its tracking; and
● the crew on board have basically the same knowledge base and cultural approach to dealing with both standard operational and dangerous situations.
International Safety Management (ISM) Code Module 1
1-180 Both of these conditions patently did not apply to the management of ships during the 1970s and 1980s. This led to the increasing realisation of the need to move towards the creation of a culture of self-regulation (sometimes called a safety culture) which concentrates on internal management and organisation for safety and encourages individual industries and companies to establish ever better targets for safety performance. It is this realisation which led towards the adoption, in November 1993, of the ISM Code which was made mandatory, as from 1 July 1998 for certain classes of vessel, by the entry into force of SOLAS Chapter IX on the Management for the Safe Operation of Ships.
1-181 The title for SOLAS Chapter IX is important since it introduces management as a means of achieving an objective which is the safe operation of ships. Under a culture of compliance the title could well have been “Regulations for Safety and Pollution Prevention on Board Ships”.
1-182 A fundamental strength and effectiveness of the ISM Code is that it addresses two key issues affecting the safe operation of merchant vessels:
(i) Within the complex inter-relationship of ownership and management, crew supply and commercial and charter operations, it requires that the com-panybe formally identified as “the owner of the ship or any other organi-sation or person such as the manager, or the bareboat charterer who has assumed the responsibility for the operation of the ship from the owner of the ship and who on assuming such responsibility has agreed to take over all duties and responsibilities imposed by the International Safety Management Code”.
Furthermore, it requires the appointment of a designated person(s) who
“is a person or persons ashore with direct access to the highest levels of management who has or have the responsibility and the authority to mon-itor the safety and the pollution prevention aspects of the operation of each ship, and to ensure that adequate resources and shore-based support are applied as required”.
(ii) The code recognises that it is vital that the management philosophies and procedures of sea and shore staff are bound together as one cohesive unit and it defines and reinforces the master’s role, establishing that he must have:
● “the overriding authority and responsibility to make decisions with respect to safety and pollution prevention and to request the company’s assistance as may be necessary”; and that
● the company must provide the ship with the proper resources in terms of competent personnel.
1-183 One other core element of the code is that it is a dynamic operational procedure rather than a static regulatory rule and that it incorporates the requirements [specified in Resolution A.788(19)] “to continuously improve the safety manage-ment skills of personnel ashore and aboard, including preparing for emergencies related both to safety and environmental protection”.
Module 1 International Safety Management (ISM) Code
1-184 Chapter IX of SOLAS specifies that the requirements of the ISM Code apply:
(i) to passenger ships, including high-speed craft, not later than 1 July 1998;
(ii) to oil tankers, chemical tankers, gas carriers, bulk carriers and cargo high-speed craft of 500 gross tonnage and upwards, not later than 1 July 1998;
and
(iii) other cargo ships and mobile/drilling offshore units of 500 gross tonnage and upwards, not later than 1 July 2002.
1-185 The challenge for the maritime community with the passing of the 1 July 2002 deadline is the need to ensure that the balance of the compliant world fleet meets the requirements of the ISM Code. Under both the Paris and Tokyo Port State Control MOUs (see Chapter 7) a three-month concentrated inspection campaign commenced on 1 July 2002, with an anticipated 3,500 inspections in the Paris MOU region alone.