From an article on The Maritime Executive website, ABS CEO Christopher Wiernicki ” has warned that a move into ship design by some class societies creates a fundamental conflict of interest with their role as independent providers of safety approval and certification.”
You can read the entire ABS article from The Maritime Executive here.
At Boksa Marine Design, we fully agree with the position of the article. Class is meant to be a third party verification of the suitability of a design. While there may be some possible exceptions, we also worry about the potential conflict of interest when the class societies are also the originators of the design. It’s as if the Quality Assurance department is part of the Engineering Department. The system of ‘checks and balances’ could be compromised.
Other interesting quotes from the article:
“When classification societies begin developing and promoting their own designs, the essential independence of class is compromised. If ABS were to promote an in-house design for an energy-efficient tanker, how could we retain our integrity if we were then to approve that same design for construction?”
“The bottom line is that, since the objectives of the designer and the class society are so fundamentally different, having class societies promote themselves as designers is dangerous,” said Wiernicki. “It undermines the basic fabric of the industry, it destroys the credibility of class as an independent third party, it has the potential to lead to poor designs that could impact the credibility of the whole industry and it upsets the essential checks and balances between commercial pressures and effective safety and environmental risk management.”
The ABS promotes the development and verification of standards for the design, construction and operational maintenance of marine-related facilities.
What are your thoughts?