From reactive in training to proactive in design: Applying standard maritime design

As advanced technology is increasingly being implemented on ships, variability and complexity in design and use also increases. Traditionally, so does training requirements. With sometimes more than 30 manufacturers on just one ship’s bridge this variability is evident both within and between ships. Such variations have significant impact for crew, creating the need for more mandatory training requirements, negative transfer of learning and increased error rates, overall hindering effective decision making and degrading safety of navigation. Maritime accidents highlight the consequences of lack of standardisation and human centred design in navigation systems. The time has come to suggest that we cannot train away the problem, but should apply a more effective countermeasure to failure – design the problem out. The standardisation of navigational systems is one effective countermeasure to reducing variability and system complexity with the IMO now proposing guidelines on standardisation (S-mode guidance) as one of its outputs for 2018. Work on developing S-mode guidance within the IMO is now underway. This paper will provide an overview of research and development activities being undertaken to support the formulation of the S-mode guidance.