MANAMA: ASRY (Arab Shipbuilding & Repair Yard), the leading shipyard in the Arabian Gulf, has reached another safety milestone with its Offshore Service division exceeding 3.5 million manhours without having a Lost Time Incident (LTI). The landmark achievement, which includes over two and half years without a rig repair LTI, comes amid an ongoing optimisation of the Safety department and focus on quality excellence that the yard has made one its top priorities.

“We spend a lot of time and effort on fostering a premium Safety culture,” said ASRY Chief Executive, Nils Kristian Berge. “The well-being of our staff, contractors and clients is our number one priority during a project, and we have put extensive protocols in place to not only minimise incident frequency and severity, but also change the mindsets of every worker on site.” Berge also emphasised the yards safety philosophy, “we’re integrating safety and quality as the primary consideration – a safety briefing is the first agenda point at weekly Core Management meetings and includes weekly incident reports and full itemized HSSEQ summary for the week.”

ASRY’s safety reputation is well-known amongst the maritime community. Already in 2015 there has been a decrease of approximately 14% in the Cumulative Frequency Rate (calculated as the number of LTI per manhours, divided by 200,000) from 0.78 to 0.67.  A recent restructuring has seen the Safety Department introduce unique new protocols to enhance Safety culture, including allowing clients to interact and agree a safety policy prior to vessel arrival; a co-signed live Bridging Document for Offshore clients which contains the safety manual on how the yard will go about its safety tasks; and a regularly publishing safety statistics on a yard-wide basis to maintain transparency and encourage all employees to take ownership of safety awareness.