AMMITEC project to modernise maritime purchasing
www.ammitec.org

The AMMITEC organisation has announced plans to modernise shipboard purchasing code systems.

The initiative is not an attempt to replace the current catalogues (IMPA and ISSA), but to create a new coding system which is easier to update by suppliers and easier to manage.

AMMITEC points out that the IMPA and ISSA catalogues do not include many new items which have recently come onto the market, such as computers, computer peripherals, navigation equipment, bolts and nuts, pressure gauges, thermometers.

"There is not a satisfactory way to insert new equipment in the catalogues when they get out on the market," says Dr Panagiotis Nomikos, president of AMMITEC. 

The project will aim to create a coding system (not a catalogue) which brings together the IMPA and ISSA catalogues, along with new items, onto a single platform.

The AMMITEC code system will have fields to include a photograph of the item, manufacturer name and model code. 

If an ISSA or IMPA entry exists for the item, there will be some kind of link to it from the field in the AMMITEC system, which could be either by incorporating the ISSA / IMPA number in the AMMITEC code number or having the ISSA / IMPA number as a field in the AMMITEC system, or some other way. 

It is possible that the final coding system will be hosted on the internet, so that suppliers can update entries about their products and everybody can always access the most up to date information. 

Dr Panagiotis Nomikos, president of AMMITEC, stresses that the system must not be proprietary and nobody will charge licenses to use it.

However he hopes that software companies and others involved in ship supply management will be motivated to get involved in the development of the system, on the basis that they will get a head start with their own in-house expertise and development, building software to use it. 

The project was kicked off with a meeting involving a number of maritime purchasing managers and IT managers in Athens and is now being driven by the AMMITEC organisation, including IT managers which together manage IT for over 3,000 vessels. 

Dr Nomikos stresses that AMMITEC does not yet have a clear direction about how it will set about making a coding system; software companies and others involved are invited to make proposals to be submitted by the end of March 2004.