The Naval Safety Command (NAVSAFECOM) has launched two new online dashboards that offer commanders and safety professionals access to timely and valuable data impacting their organizations’ mission capability and effectiveness.
Coming on the heels of the release of the Navy’s updated Safety Management System (SMS) in 2022, the safety command’s dashboards are an additional resource providing visual cues and information that may assist in risk mitigation and management to affect operating safely in a dynamic environment. The SMS is an organization-wide approach to managing risk and assuring the effectiveness of risk controls, per OPNAV M-5100.23.NAVSAFECOM’s newest data visualization dashboards address private motor vehicle (PMV) mishaps and the expeditionary and special warfare community. The two join the risk precursor analysis dashboard, which was released last year. The dashboards are located on the Department of the Navy’s web-based data analytics environment platform, Jupiter, enabling commanders, supervisors and safety representatives to get a bird’s-eye view of their organization’s risk picture, which provides an opportunity for increased efficiency due to enhanced operational decision-making. The safety data offers insights into potential areas of elevated risk in a visual format.
“The Echelon 2 through 5 commanders can view the latest dashboards to get a holistic view of risk-to-mission and risk-to-force for their organizations and subordinate units,” said Dr. William White, Ph.D., Expeditionary and Special Warfare Program analyst.
White pointed out the value in using the PMV and expeditionary dashboards, particularly how the data can detect training and personnel shortfalls by capturing lost workdays, related costs and how it impacts readiness. He added that the dashboards’ customizable feature allows commanders to also get a more accurate picture of mishap rates by normalizing or equalizing population rates among the warfare communities.
The PMV dashboard focuses on private motor vehicle (PMV) mishaps. Commanders and safety professionals can now obtain near real-time data specific to their criteria to identify any trends or concerning patterns.
The PMV dashboard is a valuable resource for commanders and safety professionals, according to Julie McDermott, NAVSAFECOM analyst and one of the dashboard’s developers.
“Users can tailor the data to their organization’s needs,” she said. “For example, commanders can see when there’s an increase in PMV-related mishaps in their organization or unit. Users can further drill down on specific categories, such as time or day of the week, age and gender, duty status or causal factors, such as excessive speeding. Leadership can then tailor training or briefings on the trends the dashboard indicates.”
“The PMV dashboard is a powerful tool for leadership, traffic safety professionals and supervisors, enabling in-depth analysis of traffic-related incidents, said dashboard user Stephen Cribb, Traffic Safety Program manager with Commander, Navy Installations Command.
“The dashboard facilitates the identification of root causes and aids in devising risk-centric mitigation strategies,” Cribb noted. “The dashboard also provides analyzation tools to illustrate PMV 2 and 4 mishap information at the national, Navy, Marine Corps, state, local and installation levels.”
According to Christine Paschal, NAVSAFECOM operations research analyst, the expeditionary dashboard covers categories that include community, i.e., naval special warfare and navy expeditionary combat, mishap classification, echelon and event type, i.e., ground, diving, aerial delivery and jump.
“Our stakeholders particularly like the narrative, or one-liners, we include with the data,” Paschal said. “The dashboard is a great snapshot of information and data for the expeditionary communities.”
The PMV and expeditionary dashboards join the risk precursor analysis dashboard, which provides fleet commanders with data modeling that assesses whether organizations are at an increased or low risk for mishaps – factoring in criteria such as manning, crew experience and operational tempo.
The risk precursor dashboard indicates to commanders that there may be a data point that needs to be looked at, whether it is manning levels, operational tempo or projected rank and experience levels across the organization, explained David Kessler, NAVSAFECOM operations research analyst.
Commanders can look at their organization’s experience by rank and operational volatility models, i.e., operational tempo and assess the “why” factor to mitigate potential risk, said Cristina Rider, NAVSAFECOM operations research analyst. The risk precursor dashboard uses machine-learning applications and artificial intelligence to create visual displays that demonstrate the ability to differentiate between units exhibiting traits of previous mishaps and non-mishap units.
Commanders can then request a deeper dive into a specific area of concern from NAVSAFECOM. An in-depth look may help commanders make better-informed decisions to address issues facing their unit.
Ultimately, the dashboards help stakeholders across the naval enterprise to identify risks, trends or patterns and raise risk awareness. All the dashboards feature data continually retrieved from safety mishap reporting systems such as the Department of the Navy’s Risk Management Information. The dashboards are continually evolving to provide additional criteria or data points and feedback is encouraged. More dashboards are anticipated to join the three current ones available now.
“Anyone with a common access card can log onto Jupiter at https://jupiter.data.mil/ and access the public dashboards they need,” said Chris Grimes, NAVSAFECOM data management division head. “The level of access to the multiple databases depends on users’ roles and responsibilities. Jupiter’s flexibility makes it attractive to users of all levels of technical expertise.”