KLSM Chooses Historical City of Hyderabad to Host Centenary Seminar

Celebrating a centenary is a historical event and Hyderabad was aptly chosen to host the seminar, famous for Historic Monuments like Charminar, Golconda Fort and Salar Jung Museum amongst many others, at the huge “Leonia Holistic Destination Resort”. With over 60% of our workforce being the Millennials, “Cyberabad” – the futuristic name for old city, fitted in perfectly at the time when K Line is ushering into the next century, and preparing for the future.

Welcoming the top management from Tokyo, Singapore and all the Delegates, Capt. Sudhir K. Goyal, CEO & Managing Director, KLSM (INDIA) urged everyone to make use of this event to interact with top management, and amongst themselves, to continue the efforts toward achieving Company’s goals. The seminar like this provides an excellent opportunity for Seafarers to upgrade themselves, not only with the latest technology, regulations, practices, but also to exchange ideas for furthering their professional skills, and promote career growth.

Mr. Iwane Ogawara, Sr. Managing Director, K-ENE Tokyo addressed the gathering and extended his appreciation for the good performance, and dedication, towards achieving Company’s objectives. He recognised that the Indian Seafarers largely serve on Energy vessels of K-Line, and it is the Energy trade that has been making significant financial progress during last few years, in these turbulent and difficult times.

Mr. Iwane Ogawara once again stressed that the Seafarers are the biggest assets of the Company, and will remain so, in the foreseeable future. His encouraging words - “the worst was behind us, and the Company is now coming out of the deep trough, gradually improving its finances” – were cheered and welcomed by everybody. He emphasised on the need to continue the good work towards achieving the K-ENE’s Vision of “Four Zero’s” (Accident / Injury / Oil Spill / Detention).

Capt. Akihiro Fujimaru, General Manager of Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha ( KKK MHRG ) then addressed the audience and presented the strategy of Kawasaki Group for next century, one of those will be the “Work Style Reforms” for bridging the glorious past with futuristic vision, and continue the journey into the next century. In addition, he spoke about the futuristic projects for sustainable growth of the Shipping Industry in general and KKK Group in particular.

Capt. Pradip Bhaumik, QCG - K-ENE Tokyo, briefly discussed various case studies to demonstrate safe navigation under pilotage, and held a healthy discussion on clarity of the role that each member of Bridge Team has to perform, to ensure safe handling of vessel in congested waters.

Capt. Santosh Rele, QCG - K-ENE Tokyo, spoke about Company’s safety culture model. He updated the audience with the statistical data on the Company’s performance, and Ranking, with respect to TMSA & HSSE assurance. The performance on the KPI’s over the past years was discussed, in order to highlight the areas for further improvement.

The stage was then handed over to external speaker, Capt. Suman Muddusetti, working with Shell Houston for over 3 (Three) decades. The topic he presented was - Achieving Predictable Outcomes – which highlighted the relationship between the set targets, the policies that must be designed for those targets, and the campaigns like Resilience, Partners In Safety, Reflective Learning and such. The data he presented was the testimony of how Shell has benefitted from those efforts, in terms of incident free days, and in terms of losses sustained from those incidents. The key take-away from his presentation was the understanding of demonstrated and direct links, to achieve predictable outcomes by setting HSSE standards and polices.

The delegates broke into two groups Deck & Engine after lunch break. Capt. Rakesh Rai, MSG – K-ENE Tokyo, addressed the Deck Officers and discussed various case studies within the Shipping Industry, related to Contact incidents with Tugs while berthing/unberthing, and errors made during Ballast and Cargo Operations. Near Miss Incidents related to Mooring Operations, and lessons learnt from various ECDIS related issues were shared by Capt. P. N. Bhaumik, QCG – K-ENE Tokyo, to enhance the awareness and to avoid making similar mistakes during the bridge watchkeeping. The counter measures brought about by the teams assigned, and the interactive exchanges, brought the key issues into focus and provided several ideas for further improvement. The intensity of the participation was commendable by all delegates.

Engineers basically did the similar thing with case studies related to technical incident and issues related to M/E Exhaust valve. The hottest topic for Marine Engineers at present is the upcoming regulations for ‘’Global Sulphur cap 2020’’ and indeed it was the highlight of this session, whereby everyone gained more knowledge, and latest updates, imparted by Mr. Iwane Ogawara. Mr. Rupesh Sinsinwar, TLNG K-ENE Tokyo, spoke about the forthcoming maintenance strategy being adopted by K-ENE Tokyo, to ensure smooth change over and continue safe operation.

The focus was then shifted to “Technical Incident - Case Study” conducted by Mr. Deepak Seth, GM (FMG) KLSM Singapore, to provide insights into key checking tips for engineers, in enhancing excellence in machinery operation.

Both the groups were then re-grouped, to be broken into further 4 (four) groups, actually the “Teams” to contest for the Centenary Sports Trophy. The teams were distinguished by “OIL” & “GAS” teams, and had a tough competition as the outdoor Team Building Exercise. The winners from the preliminary play-off’s, which can also be regarded as Semi-Finals, headed to the Finals, and the onset of twilight, then playing under the floodlit ground with “dew factor” having it’s own influence, made the competition interesting, and tougher for the teams. The excitement was great, with the commentators providing continuous coverage sometimes running out of correct words to accurately cover the proceedings. This team building activity was kind of day and night event, and provided a lot of enthusiasm, motivation and excitement to the families and players as well. The trophy was handed over to the winning team by KKK General Manager, Capt. Akihiro Fujimaru and the winning team celebrated their victory in customary style.

Having finished the cricket, everybody directly headed from the cricket ground to the cocktails & sumptuous dinner. It is impossible for anyone to be in Hyderabad and not have the world famous Hyderabadi Biryani, and other mouth-watering cuisine from its glorious past. The cool evening was perfect setting for the spicy local food, and everyone enjoyed the evening until late, and retired to their rooms, rather reluctantly.

The second day was kicked off by Capt. Santosh Rele explaining the changes, and updates, in the methodology used for Risk Assessment, based on ISO 31000:2018. This was quite informative and useful for Seafarers, for practical implementation onboard vessels.

This was followed by Capt. Imtiaz Juvale, Manager ATSI Group, KLSM Singapore, with his presentation on Permit to Work System and related Compliances.

Drug and alcohol abuse and its adverse effects on health & safety was another significant topic discussed. “Recently, this issue has been receiving attention both in the public eye and in government legislation in the industry. K-ENE / KLSM are always proactive in their efforts, to alert their seafarers regarding the adverse impact of any drug and alcohol abuse onboard their ships”, articulated Capt Miyazawa, CWG Group Leader, K-ENE Tokyo. At the same time, it was informed that the Drug & Alcohol policy of K-ENE / KLSM is being revised from time to time, to stay in compliance with the industry best practices, and charterers requirements.

Auditing and Training is an integral part of K-ENE Tokyo, and KLSM Singapore. Capt I. A. Juvale, heading the Auditing & Training Team, took the opportunity to share the statistical data concerning audit findings, and summarising the repeated or frequent findings that need to be acted upon – with his presentation titled “Frequent Audit Findings and Improvements”.

Capt Rajan Mathur then took the stage, and provided insights into the in-house developed Competency Management System ( CMS ), its progress, and it’s connection with training, appraisals, and assessments. This CMS has taken years to develop in-house, and complies with the industry standards related to TMSA. Taking the opportunity, a useful interactive session followed and Seafarers discussed their queries related to the recent upgrades in CMS, to their satisfaction.

The session after Lunch break, until Tea, was completely devoted to Reflective Learning, having the topic “People Make Mistakes” conducted by Capt Santosh B Rele. This reflective learning initiative has origins from Shell, as their Partners in Safety program, for achieving incident free operations.

The last session for the day, and for the event, began with case study of LNG ESD-2 Activation, explained by Capt. Pramod Rajakumar, MLNG K-ENE Tokyo. The video clip of an actual incident, available on social media, highlighted the intensity of such event, and associated exposure to risks, for the vessel as well as the crew, and this Video clip assisted in actual understanding of the fall-out from such event, should it occur.

Long serving KLSM Officers, Capt. Sudiptya Bose and Ch-Eng Mr. Anantha K. Meenakshisundaram, shared their journey with the company, and addressed the audience with their remarkable experiences. Both the officers have their career progression with the company, reaching the pinnacle of Seafaring profession on board the vessel. They spoke about their experiences with K-ENE / KLSM, and on the glue that keeps them attached to it.

Open Forum was conducted by Capt. Amar C. Galliara, G.M. KLSM India, to collect inputs, feedback, grievances, complaints, and suggestions from the gathering, and provide Company’s view points and explanations, as necessary and relevant.

Towards the closing, Capt M Okada, Managing Director of KLSM-Singapore, and Capt. Shoji Fukuda, Director K-ENE Tokyo addressed the seafarers with the company’s future plans. They, along with all the senior delegates from KLSM Singapore and K-ENE Tokyo, thanked all the Indian seafarers for their invaluable performance onboard K-ENE / KLSM vessels.

K-ENE / KLSM acknowledges the seafarers for their outstanding performance, loyalty, and cooperation among others. Appreciating them for their efforts, K-ENE / KLSM awarded their long serving employees on completion of 7 years, and also 15 years, with the Company. Contribution and sacrifice by Seafarer’s family was recognised through 15 year awards, which were presented jointly to the deserving officer, and his spouse. Mr. Iwane Ogawara - Sr. Managing Director K-ENE Tokyo, Capt. Shoji Fukuda – Director K-ENE Tokyo, and Capt. Masanori Okada – Managing Director KLSM Singapore, handed over the Loyalty Trophy and Award to qualifying Officers.

To celebrate the grand success of the seminar, a magnificent cocktail and dinner gala was organised for all the seafarers and the families, at the end of the second day. As the curtains came down on yet another successful K-ENE / KLSM Officers’ Meet at this historic location, everyone was satisfied and happy, and ready for the future.