Human Factors Evaluation in Ship Design: A Case Study on Offshore Supply Vessel in the Norwegian Sea, Part II: Multivariate Analyses and Structural Modelling

Surveys were conducted in the Norwegian Sea to evaluate the adequacy of human factors criteria in ship design by taking two offshore supply vessels as the samples. Two reports are being published to present the results. Part I covers the theoretical background and reports the technical aspects of the research that include noise, motion and slamming. It is concluded that the existing human factors criteria are unjustifiable and need to be adjusted for the vessels studied. This paper aims to discover important factors that are relevant to seafarers’ conditions and performance at sea. Physical measurements were performed together with crew member’s subjective evaluation of ship board conditions. Surveys were conducted in two periods: summer and winter. The environmental conditions such as significant wave height (Hs) and peak period (Tp) were recorded during the survey. Noise and motion were measured on the vessel. Sleep, sleep problems, seafarers’ conditions and performance were evaluated by means of self-administered questionnaires. Interconnectivities between variables of interest were investigated using multivariate analysis and a structural model was developed.