Section 1 General

101. Purpose

This Guidance provides the process for the Society's approval of the novel concept design or the alternative design which is deviated from existing prescriptive regulations and rules.

102. General of Risk-based Approval

1. Prescriptive regulations which is based on empirical knowledge is difficult to apply to the un- precedented novel concept design and may sometimes restrain the level of innovation that is fea- sible in design.

2. An essential prerequisite for widespread use of novel concept design is a predictable and reliable process of submitting and approving the design making full use of latest risk assessment tools and techniques. Risk-based Approval is the approval of such risk-based design.

3. Prescriptive regulations prescribe each requirement for certain components, systems or functions of the whole ship. Risk-based design may deviate from all or part of such prescriptive requirements and there may be different levels of approval depending on how deviate from the prescriptive requirements.

4. An risk-based design and approval is expected to be carried out only for ship functions, systems or components that either directly or indirectly deviate prevailing regulations.

5. One approach to the approval of the risk-based design is to compare the innovative design to exist- ing designs to demonstrate that the design has an equivalent level of safety. In order to demon- strate an equivalent level of safety, functional requirements and performance criteria are to be estab- lished for essential ship functions, which are to be met by the risk-based design. An alternative ap- proach could be to carry out a risk analysis of the risk-based design and compare it to overall risk evaluation criteria.

6. A structured approval processes is necessary in order to confirm that the risk-based design can ob- tain the approval of the Society. This Guidance prescribes such a structured process that is predict- able and reliable. By adhering to this Guidance, clients and the Society would be working in coop- eration to evaluate that risk in all aspects of safety and environmental protection are adequately as- sessed and controlled to an acceptable level.

7. In a risk-based approval process, the approval basis is to be defined based on the submitted design in terms of risk, and design analysis and review of result are to be carried out according to the approval basis. Therefore, in a risk-based approval process, the approval basis is to be newly de- fined wherever the design is modified.

103. Application

1. This guidance prescribes process of review and approval of equivalent and novel feature specified in the classification technical rules such as Pt 1, Ch 1, 104., 105., of Rules for the Classification of Steel Ships, Ch 1, 104. of Rules for the Classification of Mobile Offshore Units, Ch 1, 104. of Rules for the Classification of Mobile Offshore Drilling Units, Ch 1,

103. of Rules for the Classification of Fixed Offshore Structures, Ch 1, 103. of Rules for the Classification of Floating Production Units, etc. This guidance apply to following designs of ships and offshore units(hereafter, referred to as ships in this Guidance).

(1) Designs of ships and ship systems which intend to apply novel concept and non-proven tech- nology which can not directly apply existing regulations.

(2) Designs which intend to apply a equivalent or alternative at higher level of existing regulations.

2. The risk-based approach and the risk-based approval process defined in this Guidance may be ap- plicable to all area related to ship design, but are not limited to specific technical, regulatory field.

Ch 1 General Ch 1

3. The risk-based approval process is to take into account relevant risk which can occur during the whole life cycle in course of design, construction, operation and dismantling.

4. When applying this Guidance, substitution of design measures to reduce risk with operational or procedural measures is not permitted. Design measures are to take priority over operational or pro- cedural measures.

5. For successful application of this Guidance, all stakeholders are to exchange their opinions from the start of design to final approval through continuous mutual discussion.