A risk management methodology for maritime logistics and supply chain applications

In the marine industry although there has been significant growth towards safety, security and risk assessments or risk-based strategies such as marine insurance and regulations to avoid the risks of damage to properties and the environment or the prospect of premature death caused by accidents etc, the moves toward managing the risks which are linked directly to the business functions and decision making processes have been very slow. Furthermore in the marine industry most perceptions, methodologies and frameworks of dealing with hazards, risks, safety and security issues are for their assessment rather than their management. This trend reveals the fact that in different marine industry sectors such as logistics and shipping there is a lack of coherent risk management framework or methodology from which to understand the risk-based decisions especially for the purpose of design, construction, operation, management and even decommissioning of the marine related applications. On the other hand risk management is not yet viewed holistically in the marine industry in order to, for example, assign a right person, i.e. risk manager, who can act as a coordinator and advisor with responsibilities that are only specific to risk management. As a result this paper, by examining the present physical borders and risk-based activities in the marine industry, aims to propose an appropriate risk management methodology in addition to the emergent role of risk managers which will enable the industry users initially to become familiar with the concept of risk management at its holistic level. In the later stages this eventually can lead to development of risk management capabilities at an exclusive level and its integration into the marine industry functions in future.