Optimizing the transportation of heavy parts inside the engine room in the context of crew centred design

Some design requirements in the maritime industry and in other industries exist to cover operational and maintenance aspects but somehow fail to be applied in a human centered approach. Such bad designs create environments where operation and maintenance is performed with a higher risk than necessary (e.g. crowded working environment, valves too close to each other to be operated easily, valve/control difficult to reach, etc.). The aim of this paper is to implement Crew Centered Design (CCD) principles and by taking into account existing design requirements with respect to anthropometrical limitations to optimize the transfer of heavy equipment in a vessel's Engine Room (ER) by reducing the possibility of the human injuries and errors. In this context, the elaborated analysis is focused on two logistical aspects of the engine department: (1) movement of equipment and personnel within the machinery space to/from specified nodal locations and (2) movement of equipment to/from the ship's main deck and the entrance(s) of the engine department. The optimal routes are illustrated in multiple drawings of different ERs based on the link analysis. Link analysis is a task description method that demonstrates a generalized summary of activities performed by crew members. This approach enables engine crew tasks located throughout a ships structure to be represented in General Arrangement (GA) drawings, revealing node connections, relationships and routes between key locations and functions within a physical space.