Manila: Ulstein Marine Services (UMS), the fledgling ship management arm of the Ulstein Group, is setting up an in-house training facility in the Philippines. The new set-up is gearing up to manage relatively sophisticated vessels such as offshore support craft, chemical and products tankers, gas carriers and seismic and research vessels.
As well as extensive simulator training, students at the facility will be assessed using techniques developed by Marine Profile of Sweden which specialises in personnel profiling and has clients including Star Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, Stena Stolt-Nielsen, Dorechester Maritime and Jahre-Wallem. Described as a "silent revolution in ship management", the new operation is set to take on its first vessel, likely to be a products tanker, within the next few months. From there it hopes to build a client base of some 20-30 customers and around 100 ships over the next three years or so.
The Ulstein approach is certainly not conventional. Ship masters will be responsible for their own business units and performance will be judged in a total cost approach. Supported by 'mission control' in Oslo and key offices in Singapore, Rotterdam, Houston and Rio de Janeiro - with manning and back office functions handled in the Philippines, they will be expected to focus on energy management, operational efficiency, minimising off-hire and the elimination of damage.
According to Jens Lassen, who heads UMS, "this ship-centric approach to management will give UMS highly motivated officers and crews which will improve vessel performance. UMS will restore the captain's role," he says. [27/04/09]
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