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Posts uit 2018 tonen

Star Stuff

Last week I drove back from Rotterdam to my home town in Switzerland. When I reached the Vosges Mountains in the vicinity of Strasbourg, a dense fog covered the valley as if an ocean of cotton protected the land underneath. The sun appeared in the east as it was dawning. I was thinking: the sun warms us, this blanket of clouds protects us and I could not help a sudden thought from entering my mind that we are probably alone in this universe. Our lives, work and loves have to be lived on this earth, which provides us all we need to live well, but only if we stay in harmony with her. 92 elements in a multitude of combinations form all life, even yours and mine. Cosmologists confirm that these elements originate from stars in the universe and somehow ended up on our planet, which miraculously happened to be exactly in the right position. We are literally made up from star stuff, or stardust if you will. The sun that warms us, clothes us and provides us with the necessary means to sur

Oil and Gas Terminal Management & Control Training Program

TERMINAL MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL A marine storage terminal is a complex living system. Interaction with all stakeholders is a challenge. Complying to an ever growing number of rules, regulations and guidelines needs a control system which is manageable. We created a new management learning program that focuses on this concept: ‘information reduces uncertainty’ by using systems science. This is a unique approach developed after much research to understand how complex systems behave and generate risk. Management when focusing on effectivity using technical, economic or operational skills only, does not suffice anymore due to the enormous complexity of responsibilities and uncertainty which is the inability to know everything fully. Uncertainty is a fundamental property of complex systems primarily due to, a large number of elements, high interconnectivity, interdependence, nonlinear interactions and coevolution. Feedback loops during a system’s development make the space of poss

Risk Mapping and Sustainable Organisations

We now offer a risk mapping tool that proves that sustainability and balance are in the best interest of both producer and user (client or buyer) and every stakeholder involved. Our service is to measure and map risks and advise organizations with scientific argumentation to always allow for   ‘relevant' information. It means that stability and long term continuity of a business relation between two or more parties can only be achieved by constantly adjusting course and using updated information. So, if for example information about the danger of a certain chemical product is not disclosed, the organization selling it will become instable and vulnerable as well as the buyer or user. Therefore, it is in both parties mutual benefit to allow that all 'feedback' loops are shared and connected. If a feedback loop (withholding info) is severed on purpose (lying, denial) or from unawareness, a business or political model becomes uncontrollable and unsustainable. This reality a

Chaos & the Butterfly Effect

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Chaos & the Butterfly Effect. When one observes the entropic, disorderly world around us, we often call it chaotic, coming from the word chaos, which from Greek, actually means ‘ emptiness or nothingness of the universe, from which the Gods emerged. ’ When we use entropy, meaning disorder ’ we arrive automatically at the expression to describe our world as being in chaos which we all can watch in the daily news. Author James Gleick, who wrote a mind altering book named ‘ Chaos, the third scientific revolution ’ ,   described Chaos Theory as a way to understand that our world is not as predictable nor as controllable as mechanistic, empirical, so called linear sciences, determine. In fact, it is the opposite of linearity which is non-linearity which I wanted to mention in this column. Our businesses, industries or organisations are often created as linear systems based on linear cause and effect expectations only. They are built along mathematical and modelling or Newtonian

HSEQ Success comes from Within

HSEQ SUCCESS COMES FROM WITHIN In a new column, Arend van Campen, manager at Tank Terminal Training, examines the current focus on HSEQ and compliance This article is published in the June 2018 edition of Tank Storage Magazine When I started my career in the storage and tanker transport world 40 years ago, I worked on a tanker barge in the Netherlands and sailed the Rhine all the way to Basel, Switzerland. We were transporting carcinogen cargoes such as benzene, but also heavy fuel oil or petrol. I remember that in the summer, we worked on deck in just our shorts and walked on flip-flops. I also recall that our chief mate used toluene to clean our fuel oil stained coveralls with a broom, laid out flat on deck. After they were cleaned, we wore them again without any awareness or information that the toxic fumes could harm us. As a 16-year-old boy, I was given a bucket and a paint brush and told to open one of the tank hatches and fill the bucket with benzen

Predicting HSE risk and vulnerabilities by the TTT mapping method.

At the Rotterdam Stoc Expo in March 2018 conference speakers introduced several methods to control and prevent HSE and operational risks. One spoke about the latest version of PGS 29 which was updated, because new risks were encountered and had to be included. Impressive charts in Excel showed how health, safety and compliance managers had been able to improve safety standards, but they had to admit that ‘Human Factors’, which cause 80% of incidents, were not easy to influence or change. During the last years, TTT experimented with testing, not only human factors such as psychological biases or character flaws, but the manner people interact, communicate and share information. We started to learn about the value of information. We mimicked nature and looked at the way all living systems communicate and replicated this method to create our unique measurement and mapping tool. The measurement method was developed in cooperation with the Creazene Institute in Switzerland. It was in

Stoc Expo Rotterdam 2018

Drinking Water to Fuel our Future Economy. Next week the Stoc Expo Conference and Exhibition will be organised in Rotterdam, Holland. An impressive number of internationally operating companies, organisations and people related to the Bulk Liquid Storage industry will attend this important yearly event. What I wrote two years ago on the future of bulk liquid storage business, I ‘ d like to share with you today. I developed a method to research future trends, predictions on longevity or continuity of industrial sectors and wrote and presented these trends as I do believe we have arrived at a tipping point. Bulk Liquid Storage is a part of- and dependent on- a hydrocarbon based economy consuming non renewable fossil fuels. When I am asking the question; does this industry harm the environment, social cohesion or human and non human life, I cannot say no. Sure, the products we all use made from these fuels and chemicals improve our luxurious lifestyles, but are they sustainable? You c