Safety management in remotely controlled vessel operations

Safety management is a topic of engagement and frustration among seafarers. Safety management can reduce accidents, but it also can reduce the focus and flexibility needed to perform safe operations. In operations, core tasks ideally should be supported by safety management tasks (working according to procedures, harmonizing procedures to other professions, and documenting operations). Instead, safety management sometimes displace core tasks. Even though previous research on future vessel operations seek to create a situation where core tasks have full attention, safety management is rarely mentioned. Therefore, this study explores how safety management can support core tasks in remotely controlled vessel operations. Since such operations are still at the trial stage, this study relies on previous theoretical or small-scale empirical studies to find examples of conditions relevant for safety management. Future conditions may include fragmented organizational structures, new role interdependencies, and a heavy burden on shore-control centers. The findings suggest that the present safety management weaknesses – reduced focus and flexibility – are probably enhanced by the expected future conditions. The recommendations from this study should be considered and implemented before remotely controlled vessels are launched.