Dry docking is essential to keep your cruise fleet operational and up to date – but it’s also hugely expensive and time-critical to make sure ships can return to service as planned.
Here, SpecTec Cruise’s Vito Solito, one of our Senior Database Administrators, explains how to make yours go smoothly. Solito has extensive experience of dry dock operations with three years spent as a project manager specialized in drydock repair and refitting at Cantieri Navali Rosetti Marino Ravenna Italy, nine years as a Technical Superintendent at BNavi Ship Management Italy and more recently through his work at S&Y Arsenale M.M in La Spezia and as a Technical Superintendent at Moby.
Drydock and refit projects are crucial throughout the lifetime of any cruise vessel – that’s why over $ 3 billion are spent on them every year. In fact, for most cruise organizations, it’s the highest capital expenditure annually outside new shipbuilding.
From an operational viewpoint, drydocking makes sure essential maintenance activities can take place. These are important not just for safety and reliability but also to meet regulations – SOLAS CH-1 REG010 requires that a minimum of two inspections of the outside of the ship’s bottom take place during any 5-year period.
In terms of the guest experience, refits play a vital role in keeping what you offer fresh and innovative. It’s here that public spaces will be repaired and updated, alongside new features to drive increased revenue, such as new dining and leisure options. Over the years, I’ve even found some clients go to extra lengths (literally!) as they reconfigure or lengthen the ship to add accommodation or additional amenities.
The importance of project management
Any drydock project is a huge capital program for your cruise line, and to be successful, you’ll need to run to exact timelines to make sure your ship can return to service – and paying guests – as planned.
Making sure it all runs smoothly is a fine balance between:
- Pre-planning
- Execution
- Budget management
- Supplier management/communication
Ideally, all these processes would be managed centrally, with external reporting to key stakeholders. And like any large project, drydocks and refits must be planned well in advance, strictly controlled during execution and closely tracked in collaboration with the shipyard and other third parties. That’s where SpecTec’s technology can help.
Our AMOS Project Management Solution has been specifically developed to help cruise organizations manage a drydock or other major project end to end, control costs and maintain full transparency on all activities. Developed in 2019, its key features include:
- Cost management: bid management, forecasting and tracking all costs, including goods, services, third parties, fuel and more.
- Specification builder: to provide a clear end-to-end view of the drydock. This can be gradually built up, copied from previous projects, and easily shared with all third parties.
- Activity tracker: offers transparency and control of all project activities.
- Full integration with AMOS core maintenance, procurement & budget: this reduces the administrative burden and TCO of multiple applications.
This is a fully integrated Project Management Solution, and it’s part of the AMOS system, used and trusted by over 65% of the world’s cruise lines – so you know you can rely on it to help you handle your drydock projects as cost-effectively and efficiently as possible. And make it run as smoothly as possible.
To find out more about the AMOS Project Management Solution, simply contact us.