While at sea, the seafarers have to implement several upcoming developments pertaining to safety measures including cyber security. Keeping the seafarers abreast with these technological advancements and latest industry updates, “K” Line Energy Ship Management (K-ENE Tokyo) conducted a 2-day seminar for their sailing staff – both deck and engine dept at Goa’s lavish luxury resort ‘Bogmallo Beach Resort’ on 13th and 14th November.

The seminar aimed to focus on safety, broadening its scope, and shift to a more holistic safety – skill-based training approach at K-ENE Tokyo, KLSM Singapore & KLSM India.

Capt Sudhir K Goyal, CEO & M.D., KLSM India, warmly welcomed the top management and seafarers, and thanked the seafarers for their continuous efforts and contribution onboard. His opinion was that in the shipping industry – safety will always remain paramount but it needs to be reinforced repeatedly given the due importance attached to it – individual competence and behaviour will always be key elements in managing safety. “Safety is not a procedure; it’s a culture at KLSM Group, and we have always given priority to safety procedures onboard as well,” said Capt Goyal.

Speaking about KLSM performance in the past year and its plans for the future were Capt Toshikazu Saito, President, K-ENE Tokyo and Capt Akihiro Fujimaru, General Manager, K- Line MHRG. Capt Saito spoke about good improvement in the reducing rate of accidents & injuries and thanked the Seafarers for their contribution towards achieving that reduction. Such declining graph was the testimony of the commitment from all concerned – the top management, as well as the on-board staff – which has made it possible for KLSM Group to improve upon its rating. Capt Saito further complimented everyone for their continued efforts for further improvements, to reach the goal of ZERO accidents and ZERO Injuries in times to come.

Capt A. Fujimaru presented the company’s financials, reflecting the difficult times that are affecting the shipping industry worldwide. There is need for making every effort to stay focussed, sustain and survive, and use this period to prepare ourselves for the day when the good times will return. He thanked the Seafarers for their ideas and efforts towards minimising costs, and reminded everyone that preventing accidents & injuries is a major contribution towards the cost control.

Highlighting on the safety measures that needs to be practiced on board to ensure safe voyages, Mr Hideki Yamauchi, Group Leader QCG, K-ENE Tokyo said that KLSM Group has always focused on implementing Safety Culture onboard. He deliberated upon “K” LINE’s safety culture, work ethics, values, and the customer’s expectations from “K”LINE, and its external customers, and he briefed the delegates on how to deliver those.

“Our seafarers are our assets and biggest contributor to KLSM’s reputation. It is their dedication, hard work, sincerity and passion that have developed trust for the company among our customers,” expressed Mr Yamauchi.

Capt Pradip Bhaumik, QCG, K-ENE Tokyo, discussed minor injury cases in K-ENE, and ways to prevent injuries onboard. He opined that Human Behaviour is the key factor contributing to accidents/incidents onboard, and it is extremely important to understand the methods that may assist in avoiding those. If the Safety is engrained in our day to day behaviour, there will be focus on that aspect, and one will automatically exercise all the care and precautions - to avoid accidents onboard,” he stated.

Capt Rajan Mathur from KLSM Singapore shed light on the new horizons and updates on CMS – Competence Management System - that has been developed in-house. This was followed with an intense deliberation on cyber-security becoming a major concern wherein Capt Pranshu Vashisht from KLSM Singapore cited the examples of damages it caused to the major shipping conglomerate recently. He briefed the seafarers about this modern threat to the shipping industry, and elaborated on precautions that need to be taken by on-board staff.

Post lunch, two simultaneous sessions were conducted for deck and engine side separately, dealing with sector specific topics. While the deck side consisted of various case studies to explain Ballast Water incident, ECDIS case study, handling port officials and others, the engine side dealt with various case studies on Human Element, Main Engine Exhaust Valve, training & development and the duties & responsibilities.

The second day mainly focused on interactive sessions such as workshop and team building exercises, which were well organised and received enthusiastic participation from all.

Mr Yamauchi started the proceedings with RA – Risk Assessment – its importance in performing tasks onboard, and the way to correctly carry out such assessments. This was followed by Capt Bhaumik’s session on Reflective Learning on “Weak Signal”. There were a few workshops and team building exercises arranged among the seafarers to demonstrate and elaborate on various aspects and learning. The participation from Seafarers was full of enthusiasm, and everyone appreciated the conduct of exercises, to prepare them to tackle any such real-life difficult situation. Different teams were formed, who interacted with interesting answers to the given mock situations. Sessions like these help in enhancing bond among the peers while making learning fun.

The audience were also enlightened on the topic ‘Review of Working & Rest hours’. KLSM senior delegates explained the importance of working and rest hours a seafarer should follow, while summarizing the report and recent observations related to MLC requirements.

Capt Praveen K. Bansal, presently sailing as Master on LNG vessels with K-ENE, and having served on variety of ship types – Aframax / VLCC / LPG and now LNG – and also having served in Office positions ashore in KLSM Group, spoke about his journey and career growth with KLSM Group, starting from 2002 when he joined as Chief Officer, to the present. Not only the career growth, Capt Bansal expressed his deep satisfaction with the enrichment of knowledge that he has gained through this journey. The transparency in work procedures, the thrust on Safety in all operations, the absence of any blame culture, and other good practices that KLSM Group has implemented, make the staff feel at home and proves to be a morale booster – opined Capt Bansal.

Capt Sunil Bhadsavle, from KLSM (India) Training Division, gave a presentation on ‘Why Incidents and Accidents occur – A different perspective’. The overall outcome of the presentation was narrowed down to human element as the main factor for incidents/accidents, and ways to address this through soft skills of the seafarers.

An open forum was held at the end of the seminar. This session gave the seafarers an opportunity to express their views, opinions, grievances and suggestions with KLSM’s senior management. It formed the right platform where officers could clear their doubts, raise their voices and interact with the top management directly.

Adding extra joy to the seminar was the honour of long service award conferred on few KLSMites, by Mr Iwane Ogawara, M.D. K-ENE Tokyo, and Capt Shoji Fukuda, M.D. KLSM Singapore. KLSM has always believed in giving credit to its employees for the efforts they put in.

Taking this legacy ahead, this year KLSM honoured those seafarers who have completed 15 years, and 7-years of continuous service with KLSM Group. Awards were also given to those officers who went out of their way and made sacrifices for overcoming urgent situations in manning, it was indeed a proud moment for both – seafarers and the company as well, thereby marking the end to yet another successful seminar.

Capt Fujimaru and Mr Ogawara then gave their concluding remarks for yet another successful seminar and appreciated the efforts of all the seafarers onboard.

The enjoyable two day seminar concluded on a good note with a gala night followed by cocktails & dinner for the officers’ along with their families for both the days to celebrate the grand success of the seminar. KLSM Group has always believed that the Seafarers families are equally important, and Seminar is the best way to get to know them, and get them to feel involved with the company. – as extended family of KLSM Group.