The Impact of Digitalization on Maritime Safety and the Work Environment of the Crew (Digitaliseringens påverkan på sjösäkerhet och besättningens arbetsmiljö)

Report, 2023

The 4th Industrial Revolution has foreseen the direct and indirect disruptions within the shipping industry. The greatest manifestation is how technology has disrupted how work and its application to make work safer and more efficient and reduce the workload on operators and other stakeholders. The International Maritime Administration (IMO) has provided guidance to support the implementation of digital solutions and highlights several emergent problems. Among the issues are the risk of information overload, complex interfaces, and a risk of over reliance by the operator.

Apart from being regarded as a potential stressor in modern work life, digitalization also partly depends on a connectivity to internet, which exposes the system to risk of cyber-attacks and the emergence of ¨wicked problems”. Recent research have also identified gaps highlighting that the exploitation of these new technologies is fragmented and, facing a ¨square peg into a round hole¨ barrier. The same research also identified a discrepancy between Work as Imagened (WAI) and Work as Done (WAD) which emphasize the need to understand how the operators use the technology before it is introduced onboard.

The purpose of this research was to identify the scope, nature and consequences of incidents and problems associated with the application of digitalization. Participant stakeholder groups within the shipping industry were interviewed and identified many of the problems associated with the digitalisation on board.