Developing an operating model for contractor safety management at a global marine business organization

Abstract

Globalization, market fluctuations, increased competition, the deregulation of markets (e.g. EU), cutting costs and adding workforce flexibility have all affected on the increasing of outsourcing and contracting to enable companies focusing on their core competences, being efficient, ensuring flexibility and meeting with fluctuating demand. If contractors are not managed properly, they can significantly influence on safety of the operating organization. Possible safety consequences can be related to ensuring sufficient information flow and communication, aligning safety management systems or coordinating simultaneous tasks. Similar trend of increasing number of contractors has been recognized at Wärtsilä Marine Solutions. Despite of which, there was no coherent and global contractor safety management practices to ensure their systematic safety management.

The research was performed as a mixed-method design, first analysing past near misses and injuries offering a quantitative perspective and second analysing current stage of contractor safety management practices in Wärtsilä offering a qualitative perspective. Based on the findings and former researches, the aim was to create an operating model for contractor safety management at Wärtsilä Marine Solutions level.

Analysis of past near misses and injuries showed that reporting of contractor employees is not on the same level as of in-house personnel and it should be emphasized more. The focus of the analysis was more on the activity of reporting, since available working hours or reporting activity did not offer reliable basis for calculating safety related KPIs. Analysis of causes led into recognizing the most underreported causes of injuries.

The operating model created was combining continuous improvement and contractor lifecycle together with practical tools to cover each step. The operating model at Wärtsilä MS was based on ‘Prequalification & Contract’, ‘Pre-job planning & Risk assessment’, ‘Induction & Training’, ‘Monitoring & Communication’ and ‘Post-job evaluation’. To help applying the operating model, main defining factors for determining practices were recognized to be: ‘HR / Procurement competence check’, ‘Inside / Outside Wärtsilä premises’, ‘Short / Long-term working period’, ‘Internal / External supervisor’, ‘High / Medium / Low risk level’, ‘Routine / Non-routine work’ and ‘Local law’. An action plan for the ramp up of the operating model, was also created to enhance the implementation-readiness of it.