CONFERENCE NOTES ANDY WINBOW We should look at how technology can serve seafarers themselves rather than just the shipowners and passengers. There was little private benefit to the seafarers in terms of the developments so far. Navigation watchkeeping, could be reduced to just watching lights, stop or go, with a good technology system. Security issues have suddenyl hit shipping and we didn't think about it too much before. Small things like availability of emails and phones at reasonable cost will bring the seafarers and enlightened companies considerable benefit. Lifeboats are becoming more technically sophisticated, but the ability of the crew to maintain it isn't keeping up. An example of the perhaps unwanted effect of technological development Most of the accidents that have happened have happened before The aim should be to encourage seafarers to self regulation. ==== DAVE MARTIN Technology and seafarers don'#t always go entirely in harmony. I want to focus on what we do with it We have assets as a shipmanager and we have custody of those assets. But the key element is the sea staff. Technology isn't always good, the implementation can be a problem. Can IT fix a problem? The answer is, if we're honest, very rarely. IT is a tool to help us. If done wrongly it can actually do harm. By use of too much technology we can harm the seafarers We shoulnd't be driving the ships from the office. The success depends on how we use them Technology is useless unless we have good systems and good users. Untrained, unmotivated and unkilled staff will ensure disaster. Generally the developments that bring beneftis help us to do things better and faster. Developing and empowering our seafarers is absolutely crucial ISMS (Ulysses systems) is a good way to empower the seastaff Newslink, this is good for seafarer welfare. We're not seeing an immediate dollar value on that You need to empower and excite your workforce Tools need to be fit for the job. We've got our ShipSure Suite which links the ship to the office. Quite often the information flow is from the ship to the office. We need knowledgeable and trained operators onboard and treat them like that Does the technology save any lives, save pollution, preserve asset value or reduce costs? There are human factors behind all these issues Incident analysis We're circulating details of all accidents to allow ships It can stimulate discussion about how to prevent it We're finding that we're getting more enthusiasm from the sea staff We've probably got 100,000 man years of experience among our pool of sea staff, there's value there We need good systems and good users Good tools intelligently applied ANDREW CRAIG BENNETT We think that anything which reduces costs and reduces errors is good Bearing in mind that errors are often causes of csots Sometimes systems allow us to add value for our customers, but that's very rare Technology which benefits the seafarers are systems which reduce the drudgery Seafarers are very prone to not giving up bad systems The owner doesn't want to give up something he paid for. So its perpetuated Crew calling is of great interest to the crew and of no interest to the owner We all need to stand back and ask ourselves, where is this all leading to? The half revolution concerns us the most The whole business of measuring and recording the cargo as it goes onboard The business of determining how long it took to load it can all be electronic We will be forced into this brave new world by manning shortages We spend longer training a seafarer than training a doctor Our procexsssing system has a nice little expert system embedded in it A doctor uses an expert system to treat us. PER ERIK Payback time on IT investments Im supposed to represent the non philanthropist shipowner here, I'll do my best. Our core business is to provide logistical solutions to the customer For many years, computers have been advanced typewriters and filing cabinets onboard vessels. Then the notion of shipboard management came. There's a tendency to talk about ship-shore workflow. Shipowners are reluctant to increase ship-shoree communication. We still pay by the minute We've seen software very well suited to the seafarers but hot for the office side. We've chosen a best of breed selection. Crew want smooth operation of vessel and cargo. Commercial operation, want quick response and auto update. Our customers are becoming fewer and bigger. Investment in quality and safety never leads to any quick earnings. It will lead to better work for the customer and will generate better payback on the investment. Increased efficiency is a bonus. We are implementing our quality and safety document system We are evaluating vessel reporting and ship-shore workflow. Evaluating and selecting quality and safe4ty We are trying to work in this triple group. PANEL DISCUSSION Phil van Bergen The technology is addressing the symptoms, not the key problems, which are the results of 16th century business practise. It takes 12 years to produce a master mariner. Surely things can be speeded up here. The future of ship-shore workflow. ANDY WINBOW IMO has a policy of supporting the development of a global navigation satellite system. But its just that; a policy. It springs from problems with selective availability on the GPS. Now the selective availablility is gone, the pressure is off. ACB The insurance market does reduce its premium for safety. You'll never get a reduction for putting a safety system in place. The assumption is that if a ship is safer, then the company will have less accidents and so its premium will go down. As to the seafarer, I think it is quite difficult for a seafarer to walk off an unsafe ship. As an officer, he won't because he's got responsibility. As a rating it's a practical problem about getting home. A company with a name in the market will look after them better. DAVE MARTIN The detachment of owners by and large is a growing trend. They don't care by and large about the welfare of the crew. ACB We've made a big commitment to China. Its very hard work. There are tremendous problems in Chinese manning. I don't believe there is any further untapped resource of seafarers willing to take less pay. We're expecting more of our people at sea, not less. The available number of people at sea is going down. PER ERIK There has been new legislation making it easier to have all Scandinavian crew on our vessels. If the crew wander around, we have to teach new crew the Brostrom way of shipping. DAVE MARTIN We're trying to find conversion routes from dry ships to wet. There's more and more demand for tanker personnel. ACB COSCO recruits from inland China. They cannot retain recruits from the coast region. DAVE MARTIN I don't believe we're doing to see a reduction in sea staff, due to expert systems. ACB We've reduced our head count in the office very significantly by using these systems. ANDY WINBOW Its technically possible to run a ship with 6 or 7 people. We have to face a possible scenario where the chief engineer with many years of experience isn't actually onboard. We've got 17 people on a ship, 10 of them have very little knowledge, do very little work, but they're lowly paid so its OK. Then there's 7 people who are highly qualified and highly trained. With a bit of thought, there's an opportunity to make the job more interesting and more effective. PER-ERIK Suppliers can help with standardising messages. Different suppliers of systems have different languages. DAVE M We have proactive suppliers who will provide reports and exception reports over their whole fleets We're quite happy to have comparative reports from suppliers. GEORGE HOYT Vendors should be encouraged to provide more information and reports to buyers. My engine treatment business (CPS 5000), we're contstantly analysing entire logs and other parameters. When I was at Rydex we were constantly analysing the e-mail patterns. DAVE MARTIN On very few ships do we have professional IT staff. Its to recogsnie that there will be failures. We plan for survivability. We've got nothing that is too critical, when we've got a single point of survivability. ACB Often the senior officer is scared of a junior officer doing something he doesn't understand. DAVE M Give us bandwidth! Give us fixed costs! ACB You can put decisions onto the ships and I've done it. I've had VLCCs fixing themselves. Or you can take the decision making off the ship. ALAN GOLOB In the cruise sector we offer a passenger e-mail system. We charge the cruise company a fee, and they charge the passengers. That model could apply to the merchant sector. We say, to make a profit, you have to take ownership. You could have nothing to do with biling. Charge a monthly flat fee per seafarers. Bill seafarers per character or per message. Provide a "welfare service," possibly with pre-determined usage limits. Offline message creation Can work on message or standard PC. No additional billing or cabiling Total flexible billing option Creates individual accounts, linked to passwords No facility for online chats We're building a smart card interface surfing capability, a SMS interface. We are introducing an e-mail to postal service gateway. DANAOS Already tested with FLEET An IP based onboard system. You have very little onboard the vessel. Fleet is not working more than 70 degrees N, 70 degrees S GEORGE HOYT Unmanned engine rooms have become the norm. Newslink is planning a text only website version. The benefits to the shipowner is hard to quantify. But we believe that the care and interest the shipowner puts into seafarers is otten reflected in the care and interest that the seafarer puts into the ship. It helps build loyalty to the shipowner. Newslink enables seafarers to enhance their English language skills. If the seafarer cannot use the functions of the computer, the shipowner cannot reap the benefit. The shipowner's contact with the crew is decreasing every year The Philipinnes and India are often now considered too expensive. Most managers say, Newslink, great ideaa, wish I had it when I was at sea. Some say, the seafarers don't need news from home, they haven't needed it before The seafarers think it's a great idea, but how can they pay for it? DAVID FRAMPTON There are 35,000 voice terminals on ships, including A, B, M, Mini-M. AND is offering an integrated phone. E-mail, they can order gifts, send flowers, get football scores Access the latest news. Video jukebox, play games Video postcards, Updates to the system are issued free of charge The system is provided free of charge Subject to the minimum terminal usage Free kiosk with proven software, toughened equipment in built mini-M Do shipowners want to make a profit from their crew or provide them with a commercial solution? HAYDN JONES Its not a 2 way communication path. No interruption to normal communications Receiver rental is $20 a week. Comprehensive package of hardware, data, software and communications is $150 per week. Recoverable by improved working conditions. We think there are some savings but we hope that we're contributing to safety. DISCUSSION: DAVE MARTIN, we don't think seafarers will use AND terminals at $2.50 per minute. GEORGE the people that need it the most have the least access to it. WILHELMIUS WILHELMSON GUY gives all seafarers a quota of free phone calls. BROSTROM its free to send emails but its through the vessel e-mail system. ACB The favourite gadget is SMS text messaging. The cost is really down. KEVIN HEWLETT, TEEKAY We're piloting giving each crewmember their own numerical email address. DIMITRIS THEODOSSION E-mail is pretty safe with different systems. ALAN LEACH, GLOBE WIRELESS HF radio is effective for 99 per cent of the coverage that goes over the airwaves. PRASAD MENON, IMC MARITIME Each system brings special value. We've been experimenting with all the different systems. Its up to each operator to see what the value is. DAVE MARTIN We use VSAT, we use Iridium. We get what we pay for. We'd like software that can use all the different communications channels. GEORGE HOYT I hate to think how much wasted satellite space there's been. Because the length of communication (minutes) depends on the direction which has the most data to send (ship-shore or shore-ship). Is there any way to ulitilise the wasted minutes? ALAN LEACH A few years ago the ratio was 3:1 ship to shore, now we're seeing more messages going from shore to ship. More than 10 per cent of calls to the mailbox are empty calls, with nothing to pick up. ACB Laziness in ships officers. They knew the shore's record keeping will be better than theirs DAVE M A big problem we face is people sending unsolicited attachments to a ship. TRANSAS, SVEN RASMUSSEN Launch INS, integrated navigation system. This is a combination of systems. INS is designed for human machine interface. Transas marine was an early integrator of various types of system The system is only as good as who is using it. High priority, ownship navigation and traffic assessment Low priority: radio reporting Type approval The market should view ECDIS for the long haul ECDIS should not be regarded primariliy as a standalone system We see a tendency that shipping companies are going more for software they can use on the bridge ACB It would be nice to get back to a standard bridge design That's all gone now PANTELEIMON The ISM code checklists Safety management manulas Familiarisation, maintenance. Decision that could affect the safety of the whole ship. Every decision on a ship has safety implications. We've been doing lots of tests How do we provide that the task assistant works? In Brazil, if you're medicine is out of date, you can get fines of $120,000. Problem. if someone wants to know the history of pitch propeller, the Ulysses system found an e-mail sent 2 years ago. 98 per cent of forms can be completed electronically. DAVID MARTIN I think it's a very good system The sea staff are not backward in coming forward with suggestions for changing the manuals. The tricky thing is telling the sea staff why you haven't taken on their suggestions for change DAVID HINDS There are one or two cruise lines using them (heat cameras) It was originally developed for the world's navies for firefighting and rescue. Locate heat or spread of fire, services, motors, gearboxes Thermal image of the engine room Liquid levels in containers, Stowaways in the cargo holds and lorries The picture can be transferred and video recorded. The price starts at £5,000 ===