A SWOT analysis for successful bridge team organization and safer marine operations

SWOT analysis is an established method for assisting the formulation of strategy. In this respect SWOT application to strategy formulation about bridge organization is examined and proposed in this study. A qualitative investigation using strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis (SWOT) has been successfully implemented, emphasizing the limited capabilities of bridge resources to provide safe navigation and properly implemented bridge team management procedures. The human factor approach interacting with SWOT parameters was discussed in advance to clarify the potential threats of bridge operations for the enhancement of safety in maritime transportation. The originality of this study is that SWOT analysis as a management tool was firstly applied to bridge team management to perform strategic action plans for ship management companies to utilize bridge resources. With this bridge resource based SWOT analysis, efforts were made to explore the ways and means of converting the possible threats into opportunities and changing the weaknesses into strengths. Consequently, strategic action plans were developed for improved bridge team organization and safer marine operations.