Analysing of ship detentions by FTA and FMEA hybrid method

Port State Control (PSC) is the systematic inspection of foreign-flagged ships by port states to ensure compliance with international maritime conventions. This study integrates Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) and Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) to identify and prioritise the fundamental deficiencies that lead to the detention of ships during PSC inspections. A comprehensive analysis of data from four regional memorandum of understanding (MoU) databases (Paris MoU, Tokyo MoU, Mediterranean MoU and Indian Ocean MoU) was conducted for 1.213 ships detained between January and July 2023.The FTA method was employed to determine the probabilities of deficiencies, while the fuzzy FMEA method incorporated severity and non-detectability parameters to enhance the reliability of deficiency prioritisation. The findings revealed that fire safety deficiencies were the most significant deficiencies leading to the detention of ships. The integrated FTA-FMEA method offers enhanced analytical depth by addressing the inherent limitations of the methods. However, it should be noted that limitations such as data coverage being limited to four MoUs and the inherent subjectivity of expert judgements are recognised.