Improvement of safety during crane and lifting operations offshore based on improved logistic planning

Abstract

This paper is written to estimate the effect improvement in the logistic planning would have on risk of offshore crane and lifting operations. The effect of logistic planning has on the safety has been modeled as a part of influencing factors that may lead to incidents. All influencing factors have been evaluated to be able to estimate how much influence the planning has on the logistic chain.

The logistic chain has been analyzed, and several bottlenecks in the logistic chain were found.

These are: Lack of available space on installation deckInformation availabilityIT software The measures chosen to be implemented are: Load carrier optimizationImplementation of software programsRestriction on priority B’s The measures have a direct impact on the planning. By implementing software programs to visualize cargo and RFID (Radio frequency identification) to log the location of cargo, information availability is estimated to have a great improvement. New available technology like this will reduce the barriers between disciplines and the information availability would increase. Restriction of priority B’s to reduce the number of unnecessary calls is important since it interferes with the original planning and therefore shortens the time personnel are able to plan ahead.

Information availability is the way this paper ties IPL to this paper. It describes the benefits of cooperation between personnel and the availability of information. By including new software it was estimated 30% increase of information availability, this would lead to a reduction of 5 % of incidents during crane and lifting operations. It should also prove beneficial in financial terms, however that was not the focus of this paper. The 5 % improvement is the overall improvement taken into account all influencing factors, such as training and procedure compliance and therefore is a significant result.

By reducing "unforeseen cargo", such as priorities, will have a direct impact on the planning and give a reduction of approximately 5%of incidents, while cargo utilization will provide a reduction of 3,5%. If all measures were implemented and followed up a risk reduction of approximately 16 % would be expected which is significant due to crane and lifting operation have a low frequency but high consequence.

Integrated planning is a necessity to both reduce priorities, implementation of software tools and load carrier optimization to be reality. The need for cooperation between all the personnel in the logistic chain is critical for such measures to be realized.