Kongsberg Maritime conducted a a tailored DP (dynamic positioning) emergency scenario training course for SAIPEM’s employees at the Kongsberg Maritime training centre in Kongsberg, Norway. SAIPEM decided to put all their pertinent crews through the course. Overall the series consists of ten courses.
Specifically, DP is a state where a vessel’s heading and position are automatically managed by computer-controlled inputs to the craft’s thrusters and propellers.
Also, DP has been proved to me crucial for the vessel’s manoeuvre technology for decades, mostly in offshore contexts such as cable-laying, drilling and oceanographic research.
Yet, a global increase in DP accidents urged SAIPEM to seek Kongsberg Maritime’s assistance in bringing its staff fully up to speed with DP and related operational factors by means of a bespoke training course.
Mainly, the course was centred on avoiding DP incidents that could negatively impact operational safety and the wider environment.
The most common factors that cause the incidents, are:
- Power failure;
- Lost or drifting wind/position/motion sensors;
- Gyrocompasses;
- Human factors.
The course provided a 40-question DP system knowledge test.
This was undertaken by attendees to pinpoint shortfalls in competence and system understanding before the training started.
Through the course, Kongsberg used a K-Sim Offshore training simulator to expose participants to realistic DP situations.
Moreover, the K-Sim Offshore simulator, bolstered with role play, enabled course attendees to replicate procedures including emergency manoeuvring and close-proximity emergency station keeping.
Concluding, through the courses, the employees were able to identify DP errors, hone their situational awareness, evaluate situations and implement appropriate measures.
