Torm Shipping chooses VSAT for entire fleet - Digital Ship

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SOFTWARE The company builds 90 per cent of its vessels in China, and has senior staff out there, keeping an eye on the newbuildings. But they end up spending a lot of their time just typing in equipment numbers, because they are wrong in the manuals, Mr Bury explained. The company has sometimes fallen into the temptation of thinking that two identical ships can share manuals, only to find there are small differences in the systems fitted on the ships and it doesn't work. "They are almost sister ships but they could have some differences, so a good verification is needed after making a copy," said Mr Bury. An additional problem with paper manuals is that the final version is generally only delivered to the office at some time after the ship is delivered; it takes time to get all the data onboard electronically, which means there is a time when the ship is sailing without good information onboard. Having problems with manuals is particularly frustrating when you know that the equipment suppliers have good data systems of their own, but they don't make them available to shipping companies. In today's times of crew shortages, it is very important to have the best tools onboard as possible, said Mr Bury. "An officer with experience knows exactly what he needs to do - but a newly qualified engineer needs all the information he can get." Today's shipping companies need to manage their resources for maintenance as well as possible, including available manpower, skilled personnel and spares - and to do that means they need good data, he said. Mr Bury believes that some of the obstructions to take-up of Shipdex have been egos and a competitive mentality, or big suppliers resisting being 'pushed around', who say that they have systems which are good enough for them (although they have systems which can't work with anyone else's), so they don't see the benefits of adopting something which can help the whole industry. "Can we forget about competing for a while?" he asked. "Can we think about one tool for everyone and leave our ego behind?" The suppliers' view On the suppliers' side, MacGREGOR, Alfa Laval, MAN Diesel and Yanmar are already committed founding members of Shipdex. As well as MAN Diesel, the conference was attended by representatives of engine manufacturers Wärtsilä and Rolls Royce, both saying they are currently considering whether or not to get involved. For a supplier, to provide Shipdex documentation takes a bit of time and investment, as Alfa Laval's Mats Ottosson stressed. "It's not just pushing a button and Shipdex falls out." Equipment supplier MacGREGOR, expected to be the world's first supplier to "It's not just pushing a button and Shipdex falls out" - Mats Ottosson, Strategic Project Manager, Alfa Laval Parts & Service Equipment Digital Ship December 2008 page 20 MacGREGOR will be the first supplier to make Shipdex documents - so everyone else can get the benefit of MacGREGOR's experience, said Katerina Munter, MacGREGOR's head of technical documentation. produce Shipdex documents, is completely upgrading its entire internal software systems to move from paper / Word documents to an XML based system, in order to generate Shipdex output. The software has so far cost Euro 500,000, just for the cranes department, said Katarina Munter, MacGREGOR's manager of technical documentation services. However MacGREGOR anticipates many benefits to the company other than being able to produce Shipdex documents - not least the ability to produce manuals for all of its customers in higher quantities and quality. After moving to electronic documentation, German shipyard HDW found that it got much cheaper to create in-house documents, said Kay-Michael Goertz, currently SpecTec's operations manager for Germany, who was head of logistic procedures and IT at German ship and submarine builder Howaldtswerke - Deutsche Werft GmbH (HDW) until May 2008. It also becomes possible for shipowners and suppliers to streamline their spare part databases, because if different sub suppliers provide equipment with the same spare part, it should use the same part number, said Mr Goertz. Shipyards and suppliers will find it much easier to collate manuals for their customers from the materials sent to them by sub suppliers if it is all done electronically (rather than by collating paper). They will also be able to send further updates directly to their customers, and will benefit from their customers having much better databases, so they always order the right parts. With an electronic documentation system, it becomes much cheaper for a shipyard to create in-house documentation - Kay Michael Goertz, operations manager - Germany, SpecTec Suppliers will also be able to offer a better after sales service, something which both shipyards and service suppliers often have enormous problems with, said Herman de Meester, deputy secretary general of the European Community Shipowners' Associations. Suppliers can set up a new revenue stream, selling electronic manuals for equipment they have sold in the past - 3rd Digital Ship Conference New standards in electronic ship documentation Tuesday February 10th, 2009, Maritim Hotel, Reichshof, Hamburg Digital Ship will run its third Shipdex conference in Hamburg on February 10, 2009, about a new standard for exchange of ship technical information between equipment manufacturers and shipping companies, potentially leading to the end of paper documents onboard ships, and shipboard maintenance and purchasing systems being easily populated with accurate and complete data. We hope to be able to provide reports from the first Shipdex pilot projects with the first equipment suppliers at our Hamburg conference, as well as news about how Shipdex is being incorporated into new maritime software packages, and reports from other industries about their experiences moving from paper to electronic documentation. See the latest program and register online at www.thedigitalship.com/shipdex.htm
with paper manuals. Mårten Storbacka, general manager engineering, ship power technology, Wärtsilä Finland Oy, said that the company has already developed its own XML internal document management systems, but it may be able to provide output in Shipdex format. When asked if Wärtsilä might be joining Shipdex, Mr Storbacka said "I think it will need a lot of marketing internally, but yes, I can see it as a possibility." One of the biggest challenges with this is persuading Wärtsilä's sub suppliers to also provide their documentation in XML, he said. Suppliers can expect a contribution towards the costs of creating Shipdex manuals from their customers who demand it. "We don't expect Shipdex document free of charge - we expect some charges for this," said Pawel Bury, IT manager of Intership Navigation. Alfa Laval Alfa Laval, expected to produce Shipdex documentation next year, already has an internal XML documentation management system; it will not be replacing it but it will be installing software which can convert the output from its existing system to Shipdex, where customers request it. The company has started by looking at providing Shipdex manuals for separators, which are the pieces of equipment which need the most frequent maintenance. Alfa Laval sells the same technologies - separation, heat transfer and fluid handling - to many different industries, and it would like to continue using the same system to create manuals for all of them. It is putting together software scripts which can convert the output from its existing software into Shipdex format. The investment in this software is "quite high" to begin with, said Mats Ottosson, strategic project manager, Alfa Laval Parts and Service Equipment, but the cost will reduce over time. It is very important for Alfa Laval to maintain the flexibility to produce documentation in a variety of different formats in future as demanded by customers in different industry sectors, and by having a consistent internal system together with conversion engines is the best way to achieve this, he said. MacGREGOR MacGREGOR, a company which manufactures heavy equipment for vessels and ports, made a bold decision to move all of its documentation systems from a paper based system to Shipdex. The company has encountered a few problems with Shipdex so far, and expects to have more problems, but this is mainly Digital Ship December 2008 page 21 because it is the world's first supplier to try to produce Shipdex documents - which should make life easier for the next suppliers to attempt the move to Shipdex, said Katarina Munter, MacGREGOR's manager of technical documentation services. The company is installing new software to manage its manual production process internally, which will also be able to out- Digital Ship put Shipdex data. It anticipates producing 50 per cent more manuals and improving their accuracy as a result of having the software. "We will have less cost and faster response," she said. MacGREGOR particularly likes the way that Shipdex will be able to facilitate communications with the end user, something which is very difficult currently.
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