1 The Maritime Safety Committee, at its
eighty-third session (3-12 October 2007), considered the recommendation
that the attention of all relevant stakeholders needs to be drawn
to the importance of ships' crews having access to up-to-date,
accurate and user-friendly shipboard technical operating and
maintenance manuals, particularly for safety-critical marine
equipment.
2 The Committee noted that there exists a global
and competitive marketplace for marine equipment and that seafarers
were expected to assimilate different equipment fitted on
board quickly and operate them efficiently. Also, seafarers were
expected to be able to move from ship to ship with few restrictions;
this flexibility being essential for the efficient management
of human resources. Consequently, seafarers are likely to encounter
a wide variety of equipment fitted on board.
3 The Committee also noted that the availability
on board ships of up-to-date and accurate operating and maintenance
manuals could be enforced via the implementation and enforcement
mechanisms of the International Safety Management (ISM)
Code.
4 The Committee further noted IACS Recommendation
No.71 (dated September 2000) Guide for the development of shipboard
technical manuals and agreed that this Guide provided a useful reference
for those responsible for developing such manuals.
5 In light of the foregoing, Member Governments
are invited to:
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.1 recognize the necessity for up-to-date,
accurate and user-friendly shipboard technical operating and
maintenance manuals to be available on board ships;
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.2 recommend that IACS Recommendation No.71 is
used as a model for shipboard technical operating and maintenance
manuals;
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.3 recommend that shipboard technical operating
and maintenance manuals should be provided in the working language
of the ship and if the working language is not English, French
or Spanish, a translation into English, or French, or Spanish
should be provided; and
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.4 encourage ship designers and shipbuilders
to provide diagrams and drawings explaining the operation
of integrated ship systems as well as emergency operation
of such ship systems, recognizing that ship systems may be composed
of several individual pieces of equipment,
and bring the above to the attention of shipowners,
ship masters, shipbuilders, recognized organizations and, in
particular, manufacturers of equipment for safety-critical
marine equipment.