Imagine a future where vessels could undergo surveys without surveyors onboard

At Klaveness that future is already here.

Klaveness Ship Management (KSM) set out to explore the road towards condition based maintenance back in April 2017 with a working theory that ship owners could save substantial amounts by addressing maintenance tasks on vessels when needed instead of makers’ recommendation, which normally is maintenance at a set number of hours.

In order to achieve class notation for condition monitoring, it is a requirement to have MPMS notation in place. For KSM, this meant that some vessels would have to undergo initial MPMS survey.

Ship Manager Karl Uno Holm is excited to share that KSM completed the first ever approvedremote initial MPMS survey on the caustic bulk (CABU) vessel MV Ballard in June 2018. The survey preparation and execution was done in close collaboration with DNV GL. The traditional engine room inspection was replaced with a video recorded by the use of GoPro camera, which was shared with the surveyor in advance of the survey.

The survey was conducted with the surveyor located in Oslo, sharing screen and communicating with Chief Engineer Dorin Ichim, who was onboard the vessel during port call in Bahrain. Ichim presented the PMS and the onboard maintenance routines, and answered all questions to the satisfaction of the surveyor.

Remote surveys can reduce cost for the shipowner by eliminating travel expenses for surveyors, but most importantly it can enable parts of, or entire, surveys to be completed while the vessel is at sea. This can ultimately reduce workload and fatigue for the crew, allowing them to focus more of their attention on safe cargo- and port operations.

Going forward Klaveness will, together with DNVGL, investigate further survey elements that can be carried out remotely.
Source: Torvald Klaveness