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'Simulation Training Done Right', 26th Jun 2024

Happy to share my presentation at the NI Seminar 'Simulation Training Done Right', that was conducted on June 26, Hamburg.

Maritime Training in terms of the German education system

For those who do not know me, let me introduce myself, Oleksii Chepok - Facilitator, Auditor and Consultant in Maritime Training. I have been for more than a decade a steady partner for such internationally known maritime training hubs as WMTC (Wallem Group), ONU 'MA' (Odessa National University 'Maritime Academy' a.k.a. ONMA), OMTC (the Institute of postgraduate education 'Odessa Maritime training center').

After the center of my professional activity and interests shifted to Germany, I had to find out the correct German terms matching the services I offer to the maritime industry.

Q: What would be the established terms covering the basic training, advanced training, value added training (a.k.a Value Added Courses or VAC), continuous professional development (CPD) training, etc. for the seafarers?

A: All of these have specific mappings to the German education system:

Ausbildung: This refers to initial vocational training or education. It is the foundational training that individuals undergo to acquire the necessary skills and qualifications for a particular profession or job. In the maritime context, it would typically involve the basic training required for becoming a seafarer, such as basic safety training, firefighting, first aid, etc.

Fortbildung: Fortbildung translates to "further training" or "advanced training." It involves additional training or courses that professionals take to enhance their skills and knowledge beyond their initial qualification. In the maritime context, Fortbildung might include specialized courses, competency training, and skill development for specific roles onboard.

Weiterbildung: Weiterbildung means "continuing education" or "further education." It is a broader term encompassing various types of education and training that individuals pursue to expand their knowledge and expertise in a specific area or profession. In the maritime sector, Weiterbildung could include courses that lead to higher qualifications or specialization in certain aspects of seafaring.

Umschulung: Umschulung refers to "retraining" or a career change. It is the process of acquiring new skills and qualifications to transition to a different profession or field. This may not directly related to post-STCW training but could be relevant if a seafarer decides to switch to a different occupation at sea, e.g. en electric engineer deciding to get the engineer officer license.

Schulung: Schulung means "training" or "instruction" in a general sense. It is a broad term that can encompass various types of training activities, including those related to the maritime industry.

  *   *   * 

Regarding the specific forms of training for the licensed deck and engineering officers, as well as cadets, currently offered by me to clients I can also suggest the coresponding reverse mapping:

A. Post-STCW Training and VAC for licensed deck and engineering officers would fall under Weiterbildung or Fortbildung, as it involves specialized training to improve their professional skills and knowledge, possibly for higher-ranking positions or specific roles on the ship.

B. For cadets one year before their board exams, this would typically be part of their initial Ausbildung or basic training, which includes the necessary preparation for their exams to become licensed officers.

C. CPD, which refers to ongoing learning and skill enhancement throughout a seafarer's career, can be categorized under Weiterbildung. It involves regularly taking courses, attending workshops, and staying updated with industry best practices to maintain and enhance their competence.

  *   *   *  

If you are seeking maritime training services, Oleksii Chepok - Ausbildung & Beratung is your reliable choice for any of the mentioned ABC types of training

Working globally online and locally in the greater Hamburg area, I can offer you a range of B2B and individual services related to maritime training: either the value added courses, training faciltation, or auditing of the training processes.

O. Chepok

Sinking of 'Vasa': Historical lesson for Teamworkers

 
 

Frigate "Vasa" in Vasa Museum (Stockholm)
Photo: Wikipedia

'Vasa' was a powerful warship built in the 17th century on the order of the King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus. He understood the potential of ships as gun platforms and ordered a series of vessels with two full gundecks and much heavier guns. Vasa was to have the largest number of cannons and the tallest masts of any other ship at sea. Renowned shipbuilders and naval architects Henrik Hybertsson and Arendt de Groote were entrusted with constructing the ship at the Stockholm shipyard.

Despite recognizing that a ship with so many guns and high masts would not be stable, the shipbuilders, supervisors, commissioners, and other experienced project members dared not to challenge the King's vision. The ship was dangerously unstable, but no one spoke up. When the first architect dropped out of the project due to age and disability, another one, who took over also did not challenge the King's wishes. The King, leading the army in Poland, was eager to see 'Vasa' take up her station as the flagship in the Stockholm Archipelago. His subordinates lacked the courage to discuss the ship's problems or to postpone her maiden voyage.

As a result, the ship sank within minutes of setting out on her maiden voyage, causing significant loss of property, money, time, and reputation. An inquiry by the Swedish Privy Council sought to find those responsible for the disaster, but no one was punished. The council accepted that fear of the King's authority prevented the team from being challenging and assertive.

The sinking of 'Vasa' illustrates the Power Distance problem, imbalance between too High Authority and Low Assertiveness in a team, leading to an accident with significant loss. It also demonstrates that even in the 17th century, there was a hint of fairness in judgment that has evolved over centuries into the modern concept of Fairness, no Blame, and Just Culture.

Effective and balanced teamwork, unhindered and professional communication, other resource management essentials are key to prevent accidents. It is also an investment into maintaining safe working environment and finding solutions to daily challenges in business processes.

Various training courses, such as Global Resource Management (GRM), Maritime Resource Management (MRM), HELM (Human Element Leadership and Management), Command and Leadership (C&L), etc. cover the issues in the teamwork. The training cannot be a single life experience, but requires re-iteration. The Iterative learning allows participants to re-fresh knowledge, re-consider gained experience, and to up-scale the skills for the future application. Thus the training cycles may be considered a "vaccination" program for the staff, enabling them with a set of concepts and techniques to pre-empty incidents, find optimal solutions, be resilient in their line of duty.

For your information I offer among others the GRM, MRM, and C&L courses for my Business Customers.

BTM for PCC - it is one month old!

10th of March 2021 my Principles launched the specialized Bridge Team Management course for car carriers. That became possible as the result of collaboration with one of the world class simulation providers, pioneering in the cloud simulation.

As the author of this course, I focused on the exercises which match typical challenges for the bridge team of a 6000 CEU PCTC: windy Northern Europe locks, weathery anchorages and ports, unknown elements to compensate for, the pilots and tugs that are not magic...

This 3-day course has been aimed at developing teamwork ability, enhancing shiphandling and bridge team management techniques with reference to a car carrier specifics, i.e.: high windage area, high elevation and forward navigating bridges, high power to dwt ratio, egg-shaped underwater body, etc.

During the simulation, participants are expected to make effective use of Navigational procedures and checklists, apply COLREGs, practice MRM and BTM concepts, observe requirements of the STCW code and other relevant industrial guidelines and regulations.

The first batch of trainees were exceptionally experienced officers, who contributed lots to the simulation exercises development by their feedback. Now, one month after its birth, the course lives and gets stronger.

As it is always with a new project launched, it grows being de-bugged, developed and updated to suit the needs of the car carrier teams. I feel honoured to have it in my hands and see the results in front of my eyes. Hope for making a difference in better awareness, skills and safety for the PCC officers.

Alexey O. Chepok

This post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

What is the ISO 9001:2015 Internal auditor's certificate validity?

Neither of the ISO 9001, 17001, 19011 standards define the validity period of the certificates for internal auditors. There is an opinion that there is no need for such a certificate at all - no direct requirement - to conduct the internal audits. However that is why all the certificates I saw refer to the fact of completing a relevant training program.

Unless it is specified in the training program by the issuing body, the certificate issued has no expiry. Another source to consider is IATF 16949 that imposes requirements to maintain and improve the competence of internal auditors.

Then if your certificate is issued under the CQI/IRCA auspices, the CQI/IRCA auditor's validity is five years only. To maintain the status one has to do CPD (Continuous Professional Development) and audits.

The charted re-certification procedure can be found at www.quality.org . There is a requirement for minimum number of audits per year performed by auditors.

Ice Navigation, myths, challenges, trends, etc in 'Polar Shipping' webinar by NI

Practical and an eye-opening presentation by Captain David 'Duke' Snider (Martech Polar).

For professional seafarers only!😉

Enclosed spaces legal definition

The IMO Resolution A.1050(27) of 2011 defines:
“2.1 Enclosed Space means a space which has any of the following characteristics:

1. Limited openings for entry and exit;
2. Inadequate ventilation; and
3. Is not designed for continuous worker occupancy."

What does 'en route' mean for MARPOL Annex V?

I have received the following msg from a ship:

Good afternoon, the ship drifting in the South China Sea, the crew is divided opinion about food waste dumping overboard. We need your expert opinion, as there are differences in the interpretation of the words "enroute" "underway" in MARPOL.
Thank you in advance.

This made me look through certain sources and the answer is as such:

Good day!

Thank you for the question. The answer is multi-step:

1) First of all 'en route' in MARPOL has nothing to do with 'underway' or 'making way through water' in COLREG.

2) By IMO Resolution MEPC 55/23 ANNEX 18 UNIFIED INTERPRETATION TO REGULATION 15.2.1 OF THE REVISED MARPOL ANNEX I for Annex I “en route” was defined as “the ship is underway at sea on a course or courses, including deviation from the shortest direct route, which as far as practicable for navigational purposes, will cause any discharge to be spread over as great an area of the sea as is reasonable and practicable.”

3) Law company Black Rome LLP indicate that Annex I meaning is applied to Annex V as well (http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=5bf88ba3-a196-4164-b58f-28017073c603). Same approach can be seen in the the Dutch Supreme court decision of 2014 for Annex II (http://www.mainportlawyers.com/content/dutch-supreme-court-hands-down-judgment-interpretation-%E2%80%98en-route%E2%80%99-context-marpol-convention).

4) However by the Dutch Supreme court decision of 2014 for Annex II, basis Article 31 of the Vienna Convention,  'en route' should mean not only the above but also that a vessel is at a course at a certain speed causing the discharge to be spread over as great an area of the sea as is practicable.

5) SUMMARY:
For Annexes I, II, and V “en route”  = the ship is underway at sea making a certain speed on a course or courses, including deviation from the shortest direct route, which as far as practicable for navigational purposes, will cause any discharge to be spread over as great an area of the sea as is reasonable and practicable.

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It is very important to mind the below quoted postulates of IMO Resolution MEPC.219 (63) 2012 GUIDELINES FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF MARPOL ANNEX V, 2.7.1 :

• Although discharge into the sea of limited types of garbage is permitted under Annex V, discharge of garbage to port reception facilities should be given primary consideration.
• In general the discharge shall take place when the ship is en route and as far as practicable from the nearest land. Attempts should be made to spread the discharge over as wide an area as possible and in deep water (50 metres or more).
• Prevailing currents and tidal movements should be taken into consideration when discharging into the sea is permitted.

Hope now you have the best answer.

Thank you and best regards,
Alexey O. Chepok

Churchill's Optimist and Pessimist in 3D

Today I saw the following picture posted by Laurens and could not help commenting :)

Source: Laurens Reinier Korporaal

Sir Winston Churchill was great and brilliant. Therefore the above is a great and brilliant example of rhetoric. My opinion, such a scaling into optimists and pessimists is good for verbal fencing. It is concise, sharp and thus staggering. Say, snappy. But yet it is good for nothing in real life mining the opportunities. Why? Because it is 2D, i.e. "flat", and I would suggest using at least 3D picture of the multidimensional reality and also start allowing for more valuable post factum experience.

People all are wide spectrum and involve dynamic character. Absolute optimism and pessimism are the extreme flanges (such as infra and ultra) of the disposition range. So instead of considering just the two poles: the pessimist and the optimist, I insist on the approach based on at least four poles, namely, the "unhappy" and "happy" optimists and pessimists. If the these are graded by their utility from the worst to the best the lay-out comes as follows:

1. An unhappy optimist = the one who sees the opportunity in every difficulty but every time cannot improve the former because of the scope of the latter. It does mean his/her perception of opportunities is absolutely slant and overly. This associate leads to danger.
2. An unhappy pessimist = the one who sees the same difficulty in every new opportunity. One day the pessimist realises his/her personal restrictions and becomes disturbed. This mate soon becomes a burden.
3. A happy optimist = the one that regularly seizes the opportunities and gets success now and then. This optimist is resourceful especially in the terms of time. Do not learn from him/her - you are wasting your time then. Join him/her.
4. A happy pessimist = the one who is good at finding the difficulty in every opportunity and due to his experience becomes invaluable critic of any project. Listen to him/her but be fast if he/she becomes slow.

I believe the concept should be well clear by now. Although, here is a control question: Why did I put the "happy" pessimist the last in the row?..

Alexey O. Chepok

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Пока так, позже подправлю...

1. Порядок приема и сдачи контейнерных грузов в портах
2. Документальное оформление перевозки контейнерных грузов
3. Схема документооборота

Commercial Operations of Water Transport

Starting from September 2012 cadets and students of Odessa National Maritime Academy have been privileged to attend academical disciplines lectured in English. I have also been involved in the process, though from the lecturers side, and launched Commercial Operations of Water Transport (COWT), i.e. the much updated version of Kommercheskaja Ekspluatacija Vodnogo Transporta (KEVT) in English.

COWT is a 108-hour course delivered to the 4th year cadets (students) of the Maritime Law Faculty. As COWT is a branch of Commercial Management it correlates with Maritime and Business Law, Shipbroking and Chartering, Maritime Insurance, Maritime Economics, Shipping Management and Logistics. The discipline studies and elaborates the interactions within the water transport, particularly those of the shipowners and the other actors in Shipping.

All the lectures are supported by the slide-shows. Here is an example of an abridged lecture:



In conclusion I would like to present the course outline:
Commercial aspects of shipping operations
World trade and shipping
Concept of parcel size distribution
Shipping as a transport system
Major sectors in shipping
International maritime passages and commerce
Port Agency services
Port charges and dues
Combined transportation
Foreign trade operations and contracts
Actors in the shipping business
International payment terms and settling practice
The international trade legal framework
International sales contract: structure and contents
Mercantile and shipping terms in international sales contracts
Incoterms
International freight market and its structure
Freight rate mechanism and indices
Chartering infrastructure and Brokage
Chartering routine
Broker-Customer relationship
Charter-party, Bill of Lading: role, types and functions
Carrier's liability as set in the international agreements
Contractual relations in Tramp Shipping
Contractual relations in Liner Shipping
Forms of competition in Liner Shipping
Contractual relations in combined shipping
Standard voyage charter-party forms
Common terms in the voyage charter in relation to ship
Common terms in the voyage charter in relation to cargo
Common terms in the voyage charter in relation to places of loading and delivery
Lay time, demurrage and despatch
Freight
Other terms and conditions in voyage charter-party
Lending and hiring ships on a time basis. Lessors and lessees
Time-Charter. Typical terms, clauses, standard forms
Bareboat-Charter. Typical terms, clauses, standard forms
Slot-Charter, Daily-Charter, Trip-Charter
Concept of insuring maritime risks
Insurance for shipowners and charterers
Insurance for cargo interests
Product and its quality in Shipping
Integrity and timely delivery of cargoes
Initial handling of cargo claims
Cargo care

Keep yourself refreshed!

A.O. Chepok

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Offshore Quest - Maersk Quest For Oil

The maritime colossus Maersk Group, which incorporates such subsidiaries as Maersk Oil, Maersk Drilling, Maersk Line, APM Terminals, and many other business units, has offered a real-time strategy computer game.

In contrast with most other strategies it is not only the real-time but also the real-world entertainment, as you have to follow all the long process of oil exploration before you start pumping it out to earn your first petrodollars.

The game is available for Windows and MacOS X, free to download at QuaestForOil.com.

О качестве услуг транспортной перевозки (из лекций по КЭВТ)

Классическая концепция качества транспортной услуги

Под качеством транспортной услуги принято подразумевать степень обеспечения сохранной и своевременной доставки грузов по назначению или степень фактического выполнения перевозчиком обусловленных договором перевозки требований грузовладельца.

Перевозчик может считать, что перевозка выполнена качественно, если:

• груз перевезен в сроки;

• количество груза не изменилось;

• качество (свойства) перевозимых товаров не понизилось;

• не возникли дополнительные непроизводственные расходы (издержки на перевеску, пересчет, сортировку, перегрузку, пересылку груза; на ремонт транспортных единиц или тары; на судебные издержки или штрафы).

Отсюда важнейшими качественными показателями работы водного транспорта принято считать сохранность и срок доставки груза.

Однако классическая концепция качества не объясняет в полной мере существующие требования со стороны грузовых интересов, например, их заинтересованность в сервисе "точно в срок", в использовании "виртуального прибытия" и др.

Copyright © 2000 A.O. Chepok

PCTC Koh Jin ― японское качество перевозок
автомобилей одно из самых высоких

Что такое качество? 

По международному стандарту ISO 9000:2000 качество – это совокупность свойств и характеристик объекта, которые придают ему способность удовлетворять обусловленные или предполагаемые потребности. Под объектом может подразумеваться как продукция, так и услуга.

Близким к этому определению, но коренным образом по-иному расставляющим акценты, является определение, данное одним из современных гуру управления качеством — Джеймсом Харрингтоном:

Качество — это удовлетворение ожиданий потребителя за цену, которую он себе может позволить, когда у него возникла потребность.

Важнейшие свойства качества

Из определения качества следует ряд его важных свойств:

• качество продукции или услуги окончательно проявляется только при эксплуатации или потреблении, т. е. качество выявляется потребителем;

• качество — это относительное и динамическое понятие: со временем потребности потребителя могут изменяться и производителю продукции или услуги необходимо периодически пересматривать требования к качеству своей продукции, для того чтобы качество оставалось на прежнем уровне;

• качество — это совокупность свойств, поэтому необходимо применение показателей для его описания и количественные характеристики для его оценки и сравнения;

• качество взаимосвязано с ценой, но напрямую не зависит от неё.

Ожидания потребителя

В сфере услуг при анализе качества принято дополнительно выделять и рассматривать такие ожидания потребителя как надежность и удобство пользования услугой.

Если надежность или стабильность (удовлетворительного) качества последовательных перевозок не велика, то очевидно, что потребитель остается недовольным. В том случае, если удобство пользования транспортной услугой ниже ожидаемой (напр., по сравнению с общепринятыми стандартами на рынке), то не следует говорить о ее удовлетворительном качестве.

Удовлетворенность потребителя 

Удовлетворенность потребителя услуги определяется соотношением ее качества к цене. Удовлетворенность потребителя услуги еще называют ценностью услуги.

Напомним себе, что задачей, которую преследует потребитель транспортных услуг перевозки, является получить наименьшую стоимость транспортировки своего груза от пункта отправки до пункта назначения при минимальных потерях времени и средств.

Исходя из того, что потери времени и средств можно свести и выразить в общей денежной форме, можно обозначить удовлетворенность потребителя транспортной услуги тем, что его суммарные фактические затраты на перевозку единицы груза (т. е. стоимость самой перевозки и все потери, отнесенные к одной единице груза) лежат в ожидаемых пределах. Эта удовлетворенность тем выше, чем ниже фактические затраты затрат ожидаемых.

В реальной ситуации ожидаемые затраты динамически определяются рыночными ценами, технологией перевозки и опытом (историей) предыдущих перевозок.

А.О. Чепок

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