Vital Issues Behind DP Event Reporting

Reporting DP events is crucial; crucial for the safety and efficiency of the industry, and for enabling DPOs to learn constantly from their peers. We know the size of the DP fleet – approximately 1,800 vessels globally; we know how many reports we receive. We want more!

From January 2021 to May this year, 213 events were reported over the 500 days. We split the event categories into three areas: ‘DP observations’ – something worthy of sharing, from failure of wind sensors to freezing up of operator stations; ‘DP undesired events’ – effectively a loss of redundancy; and, the most severe category, ‘DP incidences’ – effectively a loss of position. Over the 500 days there were 33 observations, 114 undesired events, and 66 incidents.

How to report

Reporting couldn’t be simpler; all reports, whether sent from a vessel or by the operator, are asked for voluntarily and confidentially. The form can be downloaded at www.imca-int.com/dp-events-and-incidents/. It is laid out in such a way that the user can input the data using drop down selections allowing analysis of the data. Importantly, we encourage reporting through a ‘no blame’ culture.

Why report

Our objective is simple: to learn from failure. The lessons learned are anonymised and can be disseminated throughout the industry, quickly and effectively. Naturally, reports help us spot weak areas and pick up on new trends in failures, such as those concerning computers, power systems or thrusters, and thus pinpoint where we need to concentrate our campaigns and feed into existing guidance.

“We encourage reporting through a ‘no blame’ culture”

We can also pick up speedily on new types of failure or trends of concern, such as if there is a spike in 24Vdc dual power supply failures. We can see those trends and react, and when instances are reduced, turn the spotlight on another. Currently, we are seeing issues with DP computers and associated networks – it is a constant moving fire-fight.

Obviously, the highest proportion of events over our 500-day period is the ‘undesired event’, just one failure away from loss of position and a ‘DP incident’. For each of these we look for the main and secondary causes, the largest being ‘human’ and ‘electrical’ both having the potential to cause the vessel to lose position.

The human factor plays a significant role due to a number of reasons – lack of training or knowledge, insufficient awareness of guidance, or undue internal pressure. All are areas that the Nautical Institute/IMCA DPO CPD App aims to equip DPOs to counter.

Based on submitted data, IMCA publishes four event bulletins a year; the data provides vital DP Marine Committee discussion points, which can lead to reviewing/updating of guidance or determining that new guidance should be written. An ‘Information Note’ can be issued (working in concert with those who reported the incident to ensure complete anonymity).  Now, thanks to the DPO CPD App, news of events reaches those who need to know and helps them learn from others’ experiences.

Above all, there is one exciting and new outcome – this by an OEM. We discovered that in the past, fixes to a problem were often dealt with on a local basis. Now, excitingly, one OEM has bitten the bullet and is implementing a global fix to counteract a known issue. We are confident that more OEMs will see the value of IMCA’s reporting system and make similar moves.