BOQA

Bridge Operations (or Operational) Quality Assurance (BOQA; pronounced ) is a methodology utilised in shipping and which originates from the similar FOQA/FDM (Flight Operations Quality Assurance/Flight Data Monitoring) concept in aviation. BOQA is a methodology with which ship owners/operators, ship Captains, and other associated shipping stakeholders can automatically and systematically monitor, track, trend and analyse operational quality of (seagoing) vessels. The main target with BOQA is to provide a non-punitive platform for proactive analysis of vessel data to enable the enhancement of maritime safety . The BOQA methodology can be used in both conventional crewed ships and in autonomous or uncrewed vessels provided that adequate data sources are available.

Bridge Operations (or Operational) Quality Assurance (BOQA; pronounced ) is a methodology utilised in shipping and which originates from the similar FOQA/FDM (Flight Operations Quality Assurance/Flight Data Monitoring) concept in aviation. BOQA is a methodology with which ship owners/operators, ship Captains, and other associated shipping stakeholders can automatically and systematically monitor, track, trend and analyse operational quality of (seagoing) vessels. The main target with BOQA is to provide a non-punitive platform for proactive analysis of vessel data to enable the enhancement of maritime safety . The BOQA methodology can be used in both conventional crewed ships and in autonomous or uncrewed vessels provided that adequate data sources are available. == History== The original template for BOQA was laid out when Royal Caribbean approached Aerobytes Limited (a market leader in FOQA) to collaborate to provide a similar product for the maritime industry. https://www.aerobytes.co.uk/boqa/. Discussions were held as to what breaches of performance should be detected and two recorders were installed on RCCL vessels and discussions were also held with Carnival group to develop the BOQA concept. Aerobytes decided to focus on its core business of aviation and RCCL and Carnival went on to develop their own systems along with a few other companies who saw the potential. At present BOQA is not mandated and therefore there are no strict rules as to what an effective BOQA system should contain, but once the enormous potential is realised it is entirely possible that might change. == Description== BOQA is best developed as a non-punitive company-internal methodology or process, which has the overall target of assisting the ship Captain and the ship operator to maintain a high level of safety and operational quality. BOQA has been described as: A system which delivers 24/7 electronic monitoring and electronic alarms when set operational parameters are deviated from During normal operations, BOQA will collect and analyse digital operational data direct from ships operation equipment BOQA data is unique because it can provide objective information that is not available through other methods A BOQA program can identify operational situations in which there is increased risk, allowing operators to take early corrective action before that risk results in an incident or accident The BOQA program is a tool in the operators overall operational risk assessment and prevention program BOQA, being proactive in identifying and addressing risk will enhance safety The Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF) published in June 2013¹ the "Recommendations on the Proactive Use of Voyage Data Recorder Information " and went forth with submitting these recommendations as an info paper to the IMO (NAV 59/INF.9) 12/07/2013 with the title "The proactive use of Voyage Data Recorder (VDR) information ". Main aspect with this paper was to use the ship's VDR as a data source for proactive safety monitoring. This paper called for: Routine transmission of VDR data ashore Auto-analysis of data Alerts on non-conformance ...and as such the paper described in essence a BOQA solution.

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