Look Ahead 2021 – Derek Beddows

Our Director of Diving Safety and Services on what the year has in store for Archer Knight.

Diving is an integral part of the subsea industry and we were delighted to welcome Derek Beddows, a globally recognised diving safety expert, to the Archer Knight team in 2020.  

Here he looks back over the year for our diving technical authority services, and what’s in store for the year ahead:

"It’s not been a normal year for anyone, but we’re proud to have created strong foundations in our diving technical authority services at Archer Knight this year, serving new clients across the diving discipline. We plan to build on this during the year ahead, developing strong relationships across the industry.

One area where we have been particularly strong is in Diving Safety Management Systems(DSMS), where we can call off recognised diving industry professionals to perform this essential, safety-critical activity. This year, we have produced both new and bespoke systems for our clients and reviewed systems already in place. In one case this involved recommending a total update, review and restructuring of the existing suite of documents for the client.

Another main focus for 2021 is the joint venture competency and accreditation scheme we launched with Orion Group in November.

The OAK accreditation aims to raise the safety and competency bar for offshore construction -vessel and diving-specialist representatives. These are both essential offshore roles, which will benefit from effective continuous improvement, where we see individuals being set up to fail when they should be succeeding. Client companies have to ensure they are delivering the right skills at the right time by providing diligent oversight and performing the self-verification required to deliver offshore projects safely and efficiently.

By the end of 2020, we will have delivered eight specialist construction-vessel representatives to a major global operator, and there will be more focus on the diving specialist role in the year ahead.

We also plan to broaden the deliverables from the OAK process to capture other offshore disciplines and the renewables industry (which may benefit from decades of lessons learned from the oil & gas sector.)"

Read more from Derek here

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