Following the 10th annual United Nations Day of the Seafarer, ABS Chairman, President and CEO, Christopher J. Wiernicki, calls shipping to give crews the support they need to succeed in the digital era.
In fact, Mr. Christopher J. Wiernicki noted:
Expecting today’s shipboard crews to adopt a digital mindset without the right skills puts them in an untenable position and risks safety for everyone. As a whole, our industry still tends to view crews with a 20th-century mindset and to approach their challenges with 20th-century attitudes, while at the same time saddling them with the burdens and responsibilities of 21st-century technologies.
Wiernicki explained that when an organization puts digital concepts ahead of people’s abilities to fully leverage those concepts, it introduces challenges and difficulties into work processes that compromise the effectiveness and possibly even the health and safety of the people on the front lines who should be the prime beneficiaries of digitalization.
Therefore, shipping should better apply digital technologies and check progress by asking whether seafarers are being adequately trained to use and cope with the advanced digital tools they’re given.
Blending the human and digital components of our new normal such that they reinforce each other’s strengths and support each other’s weaknesses will surely prove the only route to a truly sustainable future.
…he concluded.
