Are you aware what’s really on board of your yacht? Findings from more than 15 years in the industry:
The weeks before the extensive voyage of a vessel usually is a very busy time for all parties involved in the planning process. All departments need to check their equipment and see to it that it is in pristine condition prior to departure.
In the last 15 years, our project engineers visited hundreds of yachts to check databases and help the crews correcting errors within the database. On nearly all vessels we encountered false stock levels mainly caused by human errors. Apart from spare parts for regular maintenance, the crew should always be prepared to cope with unexpected breakdowns.
Because of the multitude of things that must be considered before a long voyage, there is the chance that things are overlooked or even forgotten. Therefore, it is recommended to utilize tools to support the planning activities like checklists, snag lists, maintenance software or suitable chart software.
Another important task for all departments is to check the equipment maintenance tasks scheduled for the voyage. Based on these tasks you can estimate the necessary amount of spare parts and consumables needed to successfully complete the voyage. Apart from spare parts for regular maintenance, the crew should always be prepared to cope with unexpected breakdowns. An extra charge of common spare parts for at least critical equipment should be on board all the time.
Apart from the engineering department, all other departments need to check their equipment and inventory and verify that they are up to mastering the challenges ahead. Think about sea charts, lifesaving equipment, galley equipment, meal planning, enough consumables for cleaning, interior inventory. There are many aspects that crews must pay attention to.
A typical starting point for these planning activities is to take inventory throughout the ship to verify all recorded stock levels of inventory items. Besides that, the crew members, must oversee the whole voyage and plan replenishment dates (food, consumables, spares etc.), harbour stays, entry permissions and many more points that must be taken into consideration for a long voyage.
There are many solutions on the market, especially in the software, that are capable to support crews in preparation of their journey.
If you are interested in more information on available tools (not only IDEA Yacht) please get in touch with us to discuss options: Info@idea-data.com
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Get more out of your licenses!
In the recent past we observed that more and more of our clients started using their mobile devices to work with IDEA. That is why we decided some time ago to make two major changes:
1. We developed a new engineering app for Android and IOS (still waiting for acceptance by Apple) that focuses on maintenance and rounds. It has a completely new interface design which makes it easier to execute maintenance tasks and rounds. We also put emphasis on optimizing the performance of the app, which resulted in a very responsive app with reduced loading times compared to our old app.
In the coming months, more and more functions will be added to our new mobile app.
The new app can be downloaded from the Android Appstore (IOS link to follow soon):
2. We had a look at our licensing model under the aspect of the increasing use of mobile devices with our software and concluded that our current licensing model for mobile devices does not fit today’s requirement anymore. That is why we will change this model with our next release:
Preview of our upcoming Q1 2020 release
At the end of Q1 we will release our first major IDEA Yacht version for 2020 with quite a few new functions that will improve both the usability and the security of our software.
The first major change is the introduction of a versatile department and position management system. In the past clients had to get in touch with our support team to ask for the creation of a new position or renaming of a department. With version 2020.1 we introduce a new function that allow a user to create and edit departments, positions, roles and workflows in IDEA.
The second major change is an overhaul of our “Leave & Rest” module. The design and the usability did not reflect our current design and did not meet our own requirements. That is why we redesigned the complete input screen including the dialogues and developed a new controlling page that enable persons in charge to quickly check work and rest hours of all crew members.
With version 2020.1 we will increase security standards for IDEA, too. As an administrator you will be able to define minimum password length and complexity and decide whether you want a dropdown field to choose a user name on the login screen or if you want to activate the user name entry like you are used to on for example Google to login.
STAY TUNED!
Your IDEA Team
