TankTerminalTraining

  LEARNING BY TRAINING By Arend van Campen   SHRINKING THE TECHNOSPHERE   I hope that Dmitry Orlov won’t mind that I am borrowing the title of his book, but I wanted to express similar ideas and suggestions that he made in this amazing book. While 5G and other IT apps, drones and cameras may seem to simplify and speed up our lives, they also raise genuine concerns on dependency on the Grid, on electricity, power and on various rare earth materials such as coltan, lithium and cassiterite. What it means in my view is that we may be eroding skills and interfering with the usual learning process of human beings. We could end up with a society where people can only do what a manual tells them to do. When decision-making is outsourced to automated systems, algorithms or blockchain technology, human awareness, knowledge or skills may become obsolete, perhaps reduced to his or her ability to switch on a system only, without being able to switch it off again. I am teaching an onli

The most important question we seek to answer is: ‘how can tank storage terminals and refineries sustain themselves in a VUCA world (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) and are not harming life, the environment, and social cohesion? Because we understand our planet as a living system which depend on interrelated networks, we use and need feedback (information) to verify and test sustainability. This knowledge allows organisations to understand that disorder in the form of unsustainability is inevitable if their foundation is not adaptive to change. We have to understand organisations as complex,   adaptive organisations of communication and integrated and coherently functioning systems. Their long term existence depends on the connectivity and interaction of all activities and relationships. Enhanced sustainability is the way to be sustained for the long term. Regulators and governments demand more compliance to an ever growing number of rules and laws are deemed necessary to p

ISGOTT was first published in 1978 by combining the Tanker Safety Guide (Petroleum) published by the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and the International Oil Tanker and Terminal Safety Guide published on behalf of the Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF). This Sixth Edition updates and replaces the 2006 Fifth Edition and has been reviewed by OCIMF and ICS together with the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH). Support has also been provided by other industry associations, including INTERTANKO, the Society of International Gas Tanker and Terminal Operators (SIGTTO) and the Society for Gas as a Marine Fuel (SGMF), as well as specialists in topics such as human factors. The authors believe that ISGOTT continues to provide the best technical guidance on oil tanker and terminal operations. All operators are urged to ensure that the recommendations in this Sixth Edition are fully understood and are incorporated in safety management systems and proce

Gradually the world is returning to the New Normal. But what is that Normal, is it normal or abnormal? Does normal mean the same as before the Corona crisis, back to business as usual? Fritjof Capra, the famous physicist said that only an dramatic event would change people’s behaviour, which has actually happened. Careless people were suddenly reminded that they too are mortals, but the issue is that fear of death replaced intelligence by reactionary measures that spelled misery for the most of us for the long term. Whilst many people died from complications accelerated by the virus, billions more suddenly are facing immediate poverty because they are forbidden to work any longer and imprisoned in draconian lockdowns resulting in dehumanising effects. The Central Bank in the Netherlands has issued a warning that unemployment could double and that economic restabilisation was not to be expected any time soon. So how can we go back to business as usual if the business is no longer

What research shows is that our industry is often managed by linear thinking and actions only which makes management styles reactive rather than proactive or preventive. Linear causality means cause and effect thinking, but our industry is too complex to manage by an outdated cause and effect approach only. Linear management depends on written procedures, guidelines, rules or compliance methods to control risk and manage organisations. Younger, highly educated types of managers are recruited, but often lack the needed on the job experience, making communication between the workers and him or her difficult. This often leads to decisions made on incomplete information. (THE MAIN CAUSE OF INCIDENTS and ACCIDENTS) Non linear management to control complex systems such as our industry uses information as its energy to steer the organisation (system), rather than control or regulate it. Linear management is risky; I’ll give you some examples: Some technical equipment is not working pr

The beauty of conversation is the exchange of ideas. We may not always agree, but it is the best human method to listen and learn. But what happens when you think you have exchanged ideas and one party nods as if he has listened, but then turns around and does the opposite? I was recently asked to assess a company because human errors were costing money. The management asked me to find so called 'learning gaps.' I found them, but not just at the workers level, but mainly in management. The managers were holding on to a top-down, hierarchical management system which was outdated and was blocking the information feedback flow needed to control, manage and steer the company. So, I advised that management needed training and to learn a new way of systems thinking and cybernetics. Despite the proof I offered and the solutions I suggested, these were contemptuously rejected as if Bertrand Russell was still alive. He wrote the 'Value of Philosophy' and stated that philosophy