ABSTRACT
Safety management is defined as coordinated activities aimed at fulfilling a set of safety policies and objectives. In practical terms, safety management can be described as all the activities that are done to ensure that the risk is at an acceptably low level throughout the lifetime of the system being considered. The traditional approach to safety management in the maritime industry, and in virtually all other industries, has been what may be called a reactive approach. This approach means simply to fix non-conformities as they are found. A proactive approach is trying to predict what can go wrong before it actually happens. Another key issue is whether so-called prescriptive rules should be replaced with functional rules that open for new technology and innovative solutions. The main steps in a safety management process are risk analysis, risk evaluation, proposing measures, and implementation. It is important that the top management see safety management as an integrated part of the company policy. How to set up a safety management system (SMS) is addressed in various ISO guidelines and especially in the ISM Code (International Code for the Safe Operation of Ships and for Pollution Prevention).
