Safety Security

ISM Guidelines
ISM Guidelines
Health Environment
Guidelines for the Implementation of ISM code
The ISM Code provides an international standard for the safe management of ships and for
pollution prevention. It consists of 13 clauses expressed in broad terms and is applied to all
types of ships.

Deinition for company

The “Company” is any person, persons or organization responsible for the operation of
the ship and who on taking over responsibility for the ship also takes on all the duties and
responsibilities imposed by the Code. The word “Company” includes the owner, manager and
bareboat charterer.

The Company should be identiied by the ship’s certiicate of registry, charter party,
correspondence from the owner to the lag administration advising them of the change in
responsibility, or correspondence from the entity who has taken over responsibility for the
ship conirming to the lag administration acceptance of the responsibilities arising from
the ISM Code. The Company should implement its own safety management system (SMS)
aboard ship

Objectives

The objectives of the ISM Code include

• safety at sea

• safety of life

• safety of property and the marine environment

The safety management objectives includes

• safe practices in ship operation

• safeguards against all identiied risks

• continual improvement of safety management skills of all personnel in the company

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All possible risks relating to safety and environmental-protection associated with the ships
and the ofice should be identiied and controls to minimize, if not eliminate, the risk should
be established.

The SMS should take into consideration all mandatory rules and regulations such as lag
state requirements, international requirements, classiication society requirements, all
relevant codes, guidelines and standards recommended by the IMO and other maritime
industry organizations.

Functional requirements of safety management system

The Company should develop, implement and maintain a SMS which includes

• a safety and environmental pollution prevention policy

• descriptions of how the various tasks in the ofice and aboard ship are to be carried
out with a view to eliminating or minimizing risk

• identiication of the responsibility and authority of each person who is part of the SMS,
showing clear lines of communication between all persons involved

• the method of reporting accidents and non-conformities

• how to prepare for and respond to emergency situations

• how to prepare for, conduct and report internal audits and management reviews

Safety and environment protection policy

The policy should describe how the following will be achieved:

• safe practices in ship operation and a safe working environment

• safeguards against all identiied risks

• continual improvement of the safety management skills of all Company employees.

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Company responsibility and authority
The name and details of the person or organization with responsibility for the operation of
the ship should be reported to the lag state. A procedure should be adopted by the company
to ensure that the change is reported as required in the Code.

The Company should deine and document the authority and interrelation of all personnel
who manage, perform and verify SMS-related work. An organizational chart in the safety
management manual should show clearly how the Designated Person Ashore provides a link
between the ship and top management in the ofice. The Company should ensure that the
DPA is given adequate resources (e.g. personnel, money, ofice space and equipment) to
carry out his job as per the Code.

The responsibility starts from the top managers of the Company, who should be committed
to direct efforts, resources and investments in order to ensure that their ships are properly
maintained and operated safely by qualiied and competent crew.

Designated Person Ashore (DPA)

The company should designate one or more persons, the Designated Person(s) to ensure the
safe operation of each ship in the leet, act as a link between the ofice and ship and with
direct access to top management. The DPA’s job includes monitoring the safety and pollution
prevention aspects of each ship and ensuring that adequate resources and shore-based
support are supplied as and when needed.

Master’s responsibility and authority

The Master’s responsibility regarding the following is to be clearly deined and documented

• implementing the safety and environmental protection policy of the Company

• motivating the crew in the observation of the safety and environmental protection
policy

• issuing orders in a clear, simple manner

• verifying that speciied requirements are observed.

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• reviewing the SMS and reporting deiciencies to the ofice.

The company’s Safety Management Manual (SMM) should be carried aboard ship and should
contain a statement emphasizing the master’s authority. The document should also contain
a statement similar to the following:

The master may exercise his overriding authority and responsibility to make decisions with
respect to safety and pollution prevention, if human life, property or the marine environment
is at risk. The master may request the Company for assistance if needed.

Resources and personnel

The master should

• be properly qualiied for command; ie appropriately certiicated and have experience

and/or good knowledge of the ship

• know the Company’s SMS well; ie given opportunity to study the Company’s SMS
before taking over command of the ship

• be given all necessary support to do his job safely; ie provided with an adequate
number of competent crew, shipboard equipment, fuel, lubricants, fresh water and
other resources and support.

All the seamen employed aboard ship should be qualiied, certiicated and medically it.
Personnel, new to the ship, and personnel given new assignments aboard ship, should be
made familiar with their SMS-related duties. Instructions must be given prior to sailing
(eg the boat and ire station and duties of each member of the ship’s complement) clearly
identiied, documented and provided.

All personnel (shipboard and shore-based) involved in the Company’s SMS should have a
good understanding of the relevant rules, regulations, codes and guidelines.

There should be procedures for identifying training needs of all company personnel; ie - how
is the need identiied? - who identiies the need? - how often is the need assessed? - who is
responsible for ensuring the required training is received?

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Ship’s personnel should receive SMS-related information in a language they understand. The
crew must be able to communicate effectively in the execution of their SMS-related duties

Development of plans for shipboard operations

The Company should:

• establish plans and instructions relating to safety and pollution prevention for key
shipboard operations

• assign the various tasks involved to qualiied and trained personnel

Key shipboard operations should be identiied and procedures for each operation should be
written. If there are many ships in the leet, of a different type and with different equipment,
the procedures should be made ship speciic. The various tasks that the job involves must
be assigned to qualiied personnel.

Key shipboard operations include

• preparing for sea

• navigational safety including correction of chart and nautical publications as well as

passage planning

• bunkering operations

• oil transfers in port

• securing containers

• assessing stability condition

• leaving the berth

• navigation with pilot on board

• navigation in areas of high trafic density

• navigation in restricted visibility

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• navigation in the vicinity of ice

• embarking passengers

• cargo operations

• picking up pilot

• anchoring

• heavy weather operations

The list is not exhaustive. The Company should identify key activities by assessing the risks
involved in the operations.

For example, a well designed permit-to-work procedure will amount to a risk assessment,
carried out before any hazardous activity is undertaken. As a result of the assessment,
controls will be imposed to eliminate or reduce the risks involved. These may include,
among other things, an assessment of the environment in which the work will take place and
adjacent areas and compartments (especially for hot work), the isolation of electrical circuits
or the draining of pipes and tanks, the provision of appropriate and well maintained tools and
equipment, the assignment of qualiied and experienced personnel, stand -by and emergency
arrangements,

Emergency preparedness

Possible emergencies should be identiied and procedures for responding to each one should
be deined and documented

Emergency situations include:

• collision

• stranding / grounding

• abandon ship

• man over-board

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• search and rescue

• ire

• rescue from enclosed spaces

• shifting of cargo

• terrorism / piracy

• main engine failure

• steering gear failure

• helicopter operations

• oil spillage

The list is not comprehensive and some of the emergency situations may not be relevant
for a particular ship. A brain storming session could be held to decide which emergencies
should be omitted for a particular ship and which emergencies should be added to the list.
Thereafter, draw up a program of drills and exercises to prepare for emergencies after
identifying possible emergencies that might involve a particular ship.

The Company ofice should be able to respond to emergencies involving the ships in the leet.
A program of drills and exercises for the ofice to practice with or without the participation
of one or more company vessels should be drawn up. A room in the ofice may need to be
identiied as the emergency operations room and be equipped accordingly.

Contingency plans for the ofice include:

• the composition and duties of persons forming the emergency team

• procedures for mobilizing the emergency team

• procedures for each of the emergency situations identiied

• procedures for establishing and maintaining contact between the ship and the ofice

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• procedures for the use of communication equipment

• the use of ship’s plans, stability data, navigational charts, navigational information, etc

• lists of persons who may need to be contacted in case of an emergency

• procedures for dealing with the media

• procedures for dealing with the relevant next of kin

Reporting, analysis of non-conformities and non-hazardous occurrences

Non-conformity may be deined as “an observed situation where objective evidence indicates
the non-fulillment of a speciied requirement.”

An accident may be deined as “an incident involving injury or loss of life or damage to
property or damage to the environment.”

A hazardous occurrence may be deined as “a situation that could have led to an accident
ifv allowed to develop further. A hazardous occurrence is also known as a near miss
situation.”

SMS documentation should include procedures for reporting non-conformities, accidents and
hazardous situations to the ofice for analysis with the objective of improving safety and
pollution prevention. Reporting allows corrective action to be taken so that the incident does
not happen again. The effectiveness of the corrective action should be veriied.

The analysis of non-conformities, accidents, hazardous situations and corrective actions may
yield information that could lead to changes in the system and longer-term solutions. The
proper iling and review of non-conformities, reports of accidents and hazardous occurrences
also permit the eficient control of follow-up and veriication activities.

Maintenance of the ship and equipment

Safety and pollution prevention cannot be achieved by addressing the software alone -
consideration must be given to the hardware, ie the ship and its equipment.

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Procedures should be documented and followed to ensure that the ships are maintained
as required by statutory, class, international, and port state requirements, as well as any
special requirement that the Company may have.

The following should be taken into account when developing and improving maintenance
procedures:

• the maintenance recommendations and speciications of the equipment manufacturer

• the history of the equipment, including failures, defects and damage, and the
corresponding remedial action

• the results of third-party inspections

• the age of the ship

• particular demands of a ship’s operations

• identiied critical equipment or systems

• the consequences of the failure of the equipment on the safe operation of the ship

Inspections of the ship and its equipment must be carried out by the person or persons
identiied in the procedures, at intervals stipulated by regulation or the appropriate manual
or procedures. Any non-conformity and its cause (if known) must be reported to the person
identiied in the relevant procedure. Corrective action should be prescribed and taken and
records of all these activities should be maintained.

On board any ship there may be equipment and systems the sudden operational failure
of which may result in hazardous situations and for which there may be no mandatory
requirements. Measures aimed at promoting the reliability of such equipment or systems
should be provided. The testing and maintenance of stand-by and infrequently used
equipment should be part of the company’s maintenance plan. The following are examples
of items to be subjected to inspection and test:

• alarms and emergency shutdowns

• fuel oil system integrity

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• cargo system integrity

• emergency equipment (EPIRB, portable VHF, etc.)

• safety equipment (portable gas and CO2 detectors, etc)

• pre-arrival and pre-departure tests of emergency steering gear

• generators, emergency ire pumps

• ire-ighting and life-saving equipment

Documentation
A Safety management manual describing and implementing the SMS must be maintained and
carried by the ship.

Policies and procedures may change with management, trading pattern of the ship, ship type,
technology and competence of crews. Documents and data pertaining to the SMS may need
to be amended or changed to keep them relevant and up-to-date.

Procedures that specify how document change is initiated, who initiates the change, who
reviews and authorizes the change and who issues the new document, must be maintained.
The procedures should also specify how the change is effected and what happens to the
superceded document, if any.

Valid documents must be available at all relevant locations. Procedures should identify what
is to be done to obsolete documents to prevent inadvertent use.

Procedures should be in place to ensure that appropriate rules, regulations, codes guidelines
and standards are available. They should be of the appropriate edition or revision, and
signiicant changes should be identiied and distributed accordingly.

Company veriication, review and evaluation

Internal audits should be conducted periodically to verify whether safety and pollution
prevention activities comply with the Company’s SMS. Internal audits should be conducted in
accordance with Company’s procedures by trained personnel who are independent of the area

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being audited, except where this is impracticable because of the small size of the Company.

The Company should evaluate the eficiency of the SMS and review the SMS in accordance
with documented procedures. The results of the audits and reviews should be made known
to personnel in affected areas. Timely corrective action should be taken by management on
deiciencies found.

Certiication, veriication and control

Company must hold a valid Document of Compliance (DOC) appropriate for the type or
types of ships operated, before the ships can be audited for Safety Management Certiicates
(SMCs).

A DOC is issued to the company’s shore-based ofice following a satisfactory audit by the
lag administration or a recognised organisation (RO) on behalf of the lag administration.
The DOC is evidence that the Company is capable of complying with the requirements of
the ISM Code.

A copy of the DOC should be placed on board ship so that it may be produced by the master
for veriication if required to do so by the relevant authority.

The lag administration or RO may issue either a Full Term or an Interim DOC. A Full Term
DOC has a validity period of ive years, subject to annual audits conducted within three
months before or after the anniversary date.

An Interim DOC may be issued to a newly established Company or to a Company that

requires the type of a newly acquired ship to be added to the existing DOC. An Interim DOC
has a validity period of not more than twelve months.

A Safety Management Certiicate (SMC) is issued to a ship following satisfactory veriication

of compliance with the Code. A ship can be audited for issuance of a full term SMC only if
objective evidence can be shown that the Company’s SMS has been operating effectively
aboard ship for at least three months. A Full Term SMC has a validity of ive years subject to
at least one intermediate veriication audit held between the second and third anniversary
dates.

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An Interim SMC may be issued to a new ship on delivery or when a ship, new to the
Company is taken into management. An Interim SMC has a validity of six months which,
under special circumstances, may be extended by the administration up to a maximum of
six months.

Concept map for ISM

Implementing a safety management system on board, taking into account rules,
regulations, codes and guidelines:

DOC – company is complying with the code – appropriate types of ships – Full Term
certiicate for ive years subject to annual audits within three months before or after
anniversary date – issued by the lag state administration or a recognized organization

SMC – issued to the ship – company’s SMC is operational for at least three months – validity
ive years – intermediate veriication audit between the second and third anniversary dates
– Interim SMC for a new ship in the company – validity 6 months

Periodical internal audits – company procedure – trained personnel – corrective action to be

taken.

Review the SMS and evaluate the eficiency of the SMS

Document and control the SMS documents.

Maintenance of the ship and equipment – maintain ships as required by regulations -

inspect ship and equipment t periodic intervals - non- conformity to be identiied and
corrected - critical equipment should be maintained, including inactive equipment

Implement procedure for reporting non-conformity and system for corrective action.
prepare for emergency – emergency procedures for all identiied emergencies. programs of
drills and exercises and resources - implement ship speciic procedures for key operations

Appoint well qualiied and medically it master and crew - supply stores, equipment,
machinery - provide familiarization in SMS related duties - good understanding of rules and
regulations - identify the needs and provide training - ensure that the crew communicates

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effectively and the SMS information is understood

Master implements the safety and environmental policy, motivates the crew, veriies that
speciic requirements are met with, review SMS and report deiciency - the master is given
overriding authority to make decisions regarding safety and pollution prevention

Designated person ashore providing link between the ship and the ofice - roles and
responsibilities of personnel should be deined - organization responsible for the operation of
the ship to be deined

Company or person responsible for the operation of the ship - follow safe practices in ship
operation - implement safe guards against all identiied risks - improve management skills of
all personnel in the company

A safety management system should be implemented - SMS system should take into
consideration all rules, regulations, codes and guidelines

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