| dc.description.abstract | The Suezmax tankers are rather large in physical sizes, requiring skilled ship and terminal crew to execute the time consuming and, hazardous mooring process of securing the Suezmax tanker to a jetty to load or discharge oil cargoes. New mooring equipment technologies have emerged, enabling the industry professionals to view the mooring process with a different perspective. Lean perspectives adopted from the car manufacturer Toyota have been applied in this thesis to give depth and critical view of different perspectives of mooring process of Suezmax tankers.
A single case study with a holistic design has been done to respond to the two research questions in this thesis. The first research question concerns the mooring itself: what is the mooring process of Suezmax tankers? This is followed by the second question: how can the mooring process of Suezmax tankers be improved?
The major findings are that mooring is a complex task, involving both ship and terminal crew, who are at risk of getting injured both during maintenance work and during the mooring process. A time saving potential of about 30 min is identified when changing from steel mooring wire line to HMSF (High Modulus Synthetic Fibre) mooring line. A further time saving potential is identified if the mooring process is reengineered, reducing the required number of ship and terminal crew needed to perform the mooring process, enhancing the safety aspect of the Suezmax tanker mooring process.
Keywords: Lean, ship safety, Suezmax tanker, mooring process, mooring lines | |
