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Description
Crewing is one of the largest drivers of operating expenses of vessels. However, crew management systems are still not optimized based on the actual resources that will be needed on board in between dockings.
Ulysses’ R&D project aims to develop a software that will optimize the crew management for vessels, based on the skills and experience required to manage the planned essential maintenance and operations on board a vessel. The crew management software will solve the problem of having the correct crew members on board a vessel, while minimizing the crewing costs, based on actual needs that will arise during travel, using smart data delivered and provided from a variety of sources.
The project has a Norwegian partner; VesselMan, a Cloud Based Software Development company. They will contribute to the project by integrating their leading dry dock software with the solution, to factor in the works that will be done during the dry dock in the crew management platform.
Through the project, 1 new job and 1 new ICT solution will be created. Also, the company will increase its revenues and competitiveness in Greece.
Summary of project results
Crewing is one of the biggest drivers of operating expenses of vessels (usually second only to fuel costs). However, crew management systems are still not optimized based on the actual resources that will be needed on board in between dockings. Crew management is usually based on guesses and regulatory requirements but not planned maintenance works and proven recorded experience of staff. Therefore, there is unexploited potential in optimising crewing, to both be able to cover the necessary and planned works on board a vessel (without flying in staff at the last minute which is very expensive as well as CO2 intensive) as well as recording proven experience in carrying out various tasks, while minimising the cost.
The project led to the development of a crew management system that can improve manning based on skills, experience and business requirements related to maintenance and drydocking activities. For drydocking activities (planned and executed) Ulysses'' software was integrated with VesselMan''s, a project partner from Norway, specialised software for drydock operations.
The main activities of the project included the integration of the crew management system with the planned maintenance system of Ulysses and the drydocking system of VesselMan, the development of web interfaces and APIs for crew experience and skills management, the implementation of a crew planner and a QR code mechanism for recording works carried out on board the vessel, the development of a tablet application for accessing crew data, and the quality assurance of the final solution developed.
The final software optimizes crew management for vessels, based on the skills and experience required to manage the planned essential maintenance and operations on board a vessel. The crew management software ensures that the correct crew members are on board a vessel in between dockings, while minimizing the crewing costs, based on actual needs that will arise during travel, using smart data delivered and provided from a variety of sources.
The software will help maritime companies more effectively manage their crewing operations, to ensure that all operations are conducted in a safe and efficient way.
In addition, the project will contribute to increased profitability (turnover and net operating profit) for Ulysses Hellas. Last but not least, one new full time position was created as a direct result of the project, which will be retained even after project completion.
Summary of bilateral results
The project involved close collaboration between a company based in Greece and a company based in Norway, both providing specialised software for the maritime sector. Through the project, the two solutions (Ulysses'' software for planned maintenance works and VesselMan''s software for drydock operations) were further integrated to incorporate crewing aspects included in Ulysses'' upgraded crewing module. By offering a best of breed software, the companies are able to improve their offering to their clients as well as benefit from cross selling across the other''s existing customer base. The two companies have also approached new clients together, presenting their unified solution.