Safety and the ISM system · Module 08
Permit to work on board
Hot work, height, enclosed space and general permits, with the isolations, the toolbox talk and the risk assessment attached to the job.
Offshore Norge 088
What it is for
The requirement, and the problem
A permit to work is the only document on a ship where the sequence itself is the safety measure. Isolate, test, brief, authorise, work, restore, close — in that order, with different people at different steps, and no step skipped because it was late and everyone knew what they were doing.
This module encodes the sequence as a state machine, which means it cannot be skipped rather than should not be. A permit cannot be authorised before the gas test that its template requires. It cannot be closed while an isolation is still recorded as applied.
How it works
Three steps, on board and ashore
- 1
Raise it for the place
Choose the kind of work and the space. The permit knows what that requires — a rescue team, an attendant, a gas test — and asks for it.
- 2
Test, sign, authorise — in order
The worst reading of each gas against its limit, at every level; then the signatures, in the order the work needs them.
- 3
Run the window, then close
The permit lives for the window it was authorised for — eight hours at most for an enclosed space — and closes when the site is secured.
Example with demo data
What it looks like
A working picture of the module with demo data from the Ocean Pioneer — the same ship you find in the demo.
Try the demo — no account, in your browser, with the PIN 1234.
- Permit board — every live permit and what is isolated
- Raise a permit — the template, the tests, the authorisers
- Raised
- Gas tested
- Authorised
- Work in progress
- Closed
| Gas | Worst reading | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Oxygen | 20.9 % | Min 20.9 % |
| Flammable | 0 % LFL | Max 1 % LFL |
| H₂S | 0 % | Max 50 % OEL |
| CO | 4 % | Max 50 % OEL |
| CO₂ | 0.04 % | Max 0.5 % |
In detail
What the module does
Four permit types, seeded and editable
General work, hot work, working at height and enclosed space entry, each with its own template, its own required tests and its own authorisers.
Isolations signed on and signed back
Each isolation is a row with who applied it and who removed it. The permit will not close while one is outstanding, which is the failure mode that kills people.
A gas reading that expires
An enclosed-space reading is valid for a stated period. When it lapses the permit says so rather than continuing to display a number from four hours ago.
Toolbox talk attached to the permit
The talk is a form, held with the people who are doing the work, signed by them, and filed against the permit rather than in a folder.
Locations from the vessel’s own register
A permit is raised against a space that exists on this ship — a named tank, a named room — not a free-text field that reads "engine room" in six different spellings.
The permit board
One screen showing every live permit, what is isolated, and what expires when. It is the screen the duty officer keeps open.
In the app
On the bridge, on deck and in the office
The same records on a phone in a machinery space and on a screen in the office — with no signal, and synchronised when the link returns.
- Toolbox talks — held, signed, filed against the permit
- Risk assessment, reusable and versioned
The decision
The sequence is the product
It would have been faster to ship a permit as a form with seven signature boxes. It would also have been useless: the whole value is that the third box cannot be signed before the second, and a form does not know that.
The same rule runs on a tablet with no signal and on the server when that tablet reconnects, so it holds identically on both.
Works with
One product, not nineteen
Checklists
The daily, weekly and monthly checks on board, with versioned wording and no duplicated occurrence when two devices are offline.
ISM Code, clause 7Drills and exercises
Statutory drills per shift and per person, with the departure check that says whether this crew may sail.
SOLAS III/19.3.2Planned maintenance
Components, criticality and jobs that fall due on a running hour or a calendar, with postponement that has to be justified.
ISM Code, clause 10Insights
Read more about this
Put one vessel on it for two months
No card and no implementation project. A company adds its own vessel and its own people on its own afternoon — and if it is not for you, you stop, with your data exported first.