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Improvement of maritime safety has previously been based on a reactive regulatory approach, where regulatory improvements have been imposed to prevent recurrence of a specific type of accidental event or accidental scenario, after such an accidental event has happened. The ISM Code requires that hazardous situations are to be reported to the company, investigated and analyzed in order to prevent future happenings. Near-miss reporting is positively evaluated in this respect, because, near-misses are represented experiences and mistakes that should be shared to learn from in order to prevent the occurrence of accidents. The expression “that was too close” on ships’ bridges between the master and the officers is rarely transferred to a near miss report form, preserving the probability of reoccurrence. Near misses occurred and near misses reported might present a big difference in number. Officers easily forget the near miss situation when the safety of the ship is restored. Hazards identification will be based on documented management system (SMS- TMSA- ISO). The analysis of the documented safety and quality management will address the gap in order to improve the implemented systems. The objective of this research is to find out the best practices about near-miss reporting from the companies considered to have high level of commitment to safety within their organization. The study is based on interviews with a total of 35 seafarers who are joining on Greek ocean going vessels, and 4 representatives from safety departments of Greek maritime companies. The research also aims to address the seafarers’ perspective of reporting all near misses which have been experienced while they were in charge of specific duties (bridge watch, engine room watch) or any other operation (mooring, maintenance, drill) carried out on board. The majority of both the seafarers and the companies’ representatives believe that prior to the near miss reporting issue a safety culture environment on board is the real gain pursuit. In their perspective this is first priority to improve the general safety on board. It seems that near miss reporting is carried out on board as a compulsory compliance to the regulatory framework (ISM implementation). Further, it seems that the companies are not yet utilizing the reported data to improve feedback and the follow-up within the organization. The authors would like to thank companies’ representatives and seafarers who have participated in this study.

New technology comes with benefits for companies that choose to adopt. Additive manufacturing (AM) or 3d printing as it is commonly known has been already implemented in various sectors (industrial and consumer products, medical, automotive, aerospace, etc.). The shipping industry is characterized as conservative to changes. As AM is starting to consolidate in the industry, can offer lessons guiding changes. Application in industries with similar to shipping characteristics (industries with moving assets), reveals the potential of applying it in the shipping industry. The availability of spare parts is important for the vessel maintenance. Additive manufacturing could shorten the space parts supply chain in the maritime industry, since the part could be made near the place it is needed.

The paper argues for the necessity of a combination MMR methods (questionnaire, interview) and sentiment/opinion techniques to personal satisfaction analysis at the maritime and training education and proposes a generic, but practical research approach for this purpose. The proposed approach concerns the personal satisfaction evaluation of Engine Room simulator systems and combines the speech recording (sentiment/opinion analysis) for measuring emotional user responses with usability testing (SUS tool). The experimental procedure presented here is a primary effort to research the emotion analysis (satisfaction) of the users-students in Engine Room Simulators. Finally, the ultimate goal of this research is to find and test the critical factors that influence the educational practice and user’s satisfaction of Engine Room Simulator Systems and the ability to conduct full-time system control by the marine crew.

The evaluation with the use of neuroscience methods and tools of a student’s satisfaction – happiness from using the e-learning system (e-learning platforms, e-games, simulators) poses an important research subject matter. In the present paper, it is presented a research on course conducted in the Marine Training Centre of Piraeus. In particular, this research with the use of a neuroscience tools-gaze tracker and voice recording (lexical analysis), investigates the amount of satisfaction of the students using Engine room simulator (ERS 5L90MCL11, Kongsberg 2003 AS) and ECDIS system by monitoring the users’ eye movement and speech in combination with the use of qualitative and quantitative methods. The ultimate goal of this research is to find and test the critical factors that influence the educational practice and user satisfaction of e-learning marine systems and the ability to conduct full-time system control by the marine crew.