 This 25th issue of the popular Human Element Bulletin is devoted to the teamwork. What is actually required to ensure the safe operation of the vessel, timely cargo delivery and, the most important, health and safety of the crew members, what skills and knowledge of the human element as sea?
It appears that to understand and implement various applicable regulations and rules and to be aware of the crew members' capabilities as well as of the influence of the environment is not enough. Among the other critical aspects we would mention the effective communication, good leadership and teamwork.
We shall take the Manila amendments into account which have made the training of the bridge and engine room personnel mandatory; the amended text of the regulation now includes the application and further use of the leadership and teamworking skills for the officers. The need for the effective communication has been recognized together with the importance of the motivation and leadership.
The greatest challenge of the operator is to try and achieve the top effective results with the people being the "face" of the vessel, and there are some other human challenges involved, such as to satisfy the charterer, negotiate with the agents, etc. - and the human relations skills are similar in all of those challenges...
 Issue 5 of the Human Element bulletin contains the updates on such important matters as building the shipping company culture, a total quality lifecycle, investing in quality as investing in people, consolidating international standards of the maritime labor, corporate social responsibility in the today's maritime industry, PSC reports, sustainability reporting in the shipping sector, etc. We often define the term "quality" in the context of the customer-supplier relationship as a measurement of how a products or offered services meet or exceed customer's expectations. But, the quality of management in ship operations impacts on the way in which the master and his crew conduct their business.
Not all ship operators aspire to the highest levels of quality. Port State Control reports record that some shipowners are failing to comply with international conventions, such that the condition of the ship or the quality of its crew falls below the required standard. There are some companies whose focus is on profit - at the expense of quality and of a safety culture. Their compliance with regulations aspires only to the acceptable, particularly in respect of crew working and living conditions, safety of life at sea and accident prevention. Better if used together with this short video film addressing same topics.
 The twenty-fourth issue of Alert human element bulletin. The good design of the vessel performed bearing in mind the human element is considered critically important for the safe and also efficient operation of any vessel together with the systems, as well as to the health and safety of the crew members and their wellbeing.
The naval architects and designers of the shipboard systems shall be in close touch with the professionals working and living aboard vessels. They shall also have the understanding of the fact that nowadays the vessels are operating with the crews consisting of males and females, and people representing different nationalities, cultures and looking different - it actually means that the ship design features may be considered good for one group of crew members but will not necessarily be highly appreciated by others.
The designers shall also be able to perform the proper identification and provide clear descriptions of the social and physical concepts in which the products and systems they design is expected to be used, noting the nature of the work to be carried out and implications of the design they work on, for the crew members. They must have a clear and thorough understanding of the main principles of the HCD, standing for the human-centered design, addressed in the seventh issue of our bulletin...
 And here we are by the next, sixth issue of our Human Element Bulletin. Reader who have a glance into this release of our periodic paper, will get to know how to deal with the fatigue properly, how to train a multinational workforce and even train the trainer, gain and understand the "Perils of the Sea", develop and maintain the human components of ship systems.
The authors have tried to evaluate the importance of the role which the training vessel plays in the process of training the seafarers of the future; another title is "Invest in yourself". The process of education is gradual - we acquire knowledge by means of learning and instruction, just the same way we develop the personal attributes through observation and upbringing. It is a lifelong process; we never stop learning, whether through formal education or through the 'University of Life' (observation and experience).
Talking about training - the correctly applied one is the planned systematic process of developing the knowledge or skills through instruction or practice. Shortly, this release deals mostly with the training issues. As usual, the booklet is supplemented with this short training video film for reference and better understanding.
 Here is another, fourth issue of the newly founded Alert bulletin addresses following important aspects of the today's shipping industry - Crew endurance management; The seven needs of the mariners - competence, attitude, motivation, happy and wealthy lifestyle, safe and secure working environment, self actualization and, of course, moral values; another topic is named "Maritime Education & Training providers take the initiative"; Endurance risk factors, Seafarers with Spirit, People; Communication; Seafarers' wellbeing; A research agenda; Principles of safe manning.
People are the most important asset and ships working at sea always need good, duly qualified and properly motivated personnel in order to operate well. Nowadays, efforts are made to introduce the use of the latest technologies into so many aspects of ship design and operation with the aim to reduce manning costs and levels, which would improve operations. This has been one of the core topics contained in the present issue of our bulletin. Have a look and, who knows, maybe you will find something that can be used during your everyday work and improve the safety. This interesting booklet is to be supplemented with this short video.
 Our project is continuously developing and we are now ready to introduce the third issue of the popular International Maritime HE Bulletin. Among the most important topics addressed in this one there are human errors, shipboard maintenance, the case for a decent design, designing to fit the user, an ergonomic nightmare, improving ship operational design, ergonomics, training and competence, the human element in pilotage, prevention through people - an overview, some relevant accident investigation reports and case studies also included.
As it is now obvious than most of the accidents happening in the shipping industry result from the human error and relatively few of them are rooted to the technical failure of the equipment, it is becoming more and more important to pay the extreme attention to the human factor as the main cause of the incidents.
Such errors may be done at the design stage or during the new construction, as well as during the operation and/or maintenance of any of the vessel's systems or equipment. Again, we are trying to find the ways to get the number of incidents caused by human error reduced, this is the most important yet most difficult aim... Supplemented with this short video film.
 Here is the fifteenth issue of he Human Element Bulletin addressing the important matters related to the automation. The topics that have been dealt with by the authors of this release include trust and dependability of ship automation, increasing the manageability of the automated alarms, perspectives of the chief engineer, automation, electronics officers and STCW Convention, staying cool in the liquid natural gas business, mitigating human errors in the use of automated systems that are installed on board marine vessels, meeting various operator's needs, breakdown of the machinery and fire that can subsequently occur onboard a container ship, and others.
The systems that are installed on board ships are protected with the very rigorous standards for design, and redundancy, as well as with the feedbacks activating the alarms. Both reliability and efficiency of subject shipboard systems can be significantly decreased if they have not been properly set up and if they are not duly maintained including regular monitoring - and all these tasks are to be performed by the seafarer, i.e. the human element of the system. The technological revolution that occurred in the past decades totally changed the way of interaction between people and systems. In the today's shipping industry, such human element became an endangered species, and that is mostly because of the increasing number of automation arrangements... This booklet shall be supplemented with this short video.
 Another release of the Human Element bulletin. This one has been dedicated mainly to the effective communication matters, treating this as the key to successful operations. We all know that the ability of the human to convey the information properly, by means of verbal communication or in writing is critically important since it not only directly relates to the safety of the crew, passengers of the vessels and visitors, but also affects the wellbeing of the people on board. It may seem that the English skills of some seamen is too bad that they experience problems when trying to communicate between themselves and with the agents.
The IMO SMCP was specifically prepared with the intention to get round this problem and trying to avoid such misunderstandings caused by the language barrier... obviously, this might cause major accidents and shall be avoided. Well, one of the keys to the improvement of the verbal communication is recruiting the seafarers having the basic understanding of the language in use on board, and also continuing education - learning and control of the training process through regular testing.
Apart from this issue, the quality of shipboard documentation has also been addressed in this release of the bulletin, together with culture and communication, alarm system management, paperwork, visual signals etc. Supplemented with this video.
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