A KPCA-FAHP-based risk analysis of ship crane mishandling.

Abstract

Sudden mechanical failure in a ship crane due to mishandling presents significant safety risks for seafarers and dock workers. While previous research has focused on crane maintenance, the risks associated with mishandling during operations remain underexplored. This study introduces a methodology integrating kernel principal component analysis, t-distributed stochastic neighbour embedding and tree analysis. A case study examines 10 years of alarm logs from two 35-ton ship cranes, revealing distinct risk patterns. The crane near the bow recorded 51 alarms when lifting loads above the ship, whereas the crane near crew accommodation logged only 22. Alarm frequency varied by location, with 71.3% of all alarms occurring in a single port over 3.8 days. Additionally, operational timing influenced the alarm distribution - alarms peaked between 00:00 and 05:00 near crew accommodations, whereas bow crane alarms were more frequent from 12:00 to 16:00. These findings highlight the need for targeted operational safety measures.