Risk Management Lessons from Shipping Container Losses
Like everywhere else, high demand increases pressure to cut corners and take undue risks. Rushed staff can skip process and safety controls. Bloomberg News (April 26, 2021) analyzed losses of shipping containers from stacked-to-the-sky cargo vessels. Notice the risk of each decision:
Loading ships higher - raising risks of instability
Navigating through storms rather than around to save fuel and time
Incorrect weight labeling of containers, with heavier containers on upper layers causing lower containers to buckle
Rushed loading leading to improper securing of containers
Overworked crew members, multiplying human error
PTSD becoming common in crew members
Responsibility scattered in different realms: port authorities, shipping lines, captains and crews, and shippers, but little accountability or change
Though about shipping, this could have been written about many industries. In manufacturing, similar errors occur all the time. As we see industry orders returning, high customer demand with pressure to reduce delivery times often results in cut corners like:
Incomplete reading of instructions leading to missed controls
Skipped records get backfilled after the fact, with guesses
In-process and final inspections get rushed, AQLs fudged
Squeezing a few extra parts in a full box to avoid starting over
Processes change without updating documents, losing reproducibility
Rushed or skipped cleaning leaves FOD on product
Ignored safety controls are high-risk roulette
Skipped periodic maintenance can lead to higher repair costs
Skipped breaks don’t allow the brain and body to reset, impacting morale, focus, safety and productivity
All of this affects conformance to customer, safety, & regulatory requirements.
Finding solutions: ISO added the concept of reducing human error in many standards – because tired, stressed, or disengaged brains make mistakes. While automation can help us function faster with (we hope) fewer errors, it’s not a fit in every case. The emphasis in ISO standards is a self-correcting sustainable system, where caught mistakes and near-misses lead to improvement, and team engagement means everyone shares the opportunity to improve the whole.
