Continuous Improvement News

Fort Lauderdale, Fla. based maritime and industrial mechanical service repair specialist Advanced Mechanical Enterprises (AME) announced it has appointed Paul Savage as its new Operations Manager.With over 30 years of leadership and project management experience, Savage joins the AME management team from Veolia North America, where he served as Vice President, managing complex industrial and government contracts. At Veolia, Savage was at the helm of commercial, state, and federal contracts…

Viking Life-Saving Equipment A/S appointed Henrik Helsinghof as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective from June 1, 2024.The appointment follows the death of former CEO Henrik Uhd Christensen in January following a short illness. Helsinghof had previously been identified by Christensen and the VIKING Board of Directors as a possible successor.Helsinghof began his career in VIKING in 2006 as student assistant and remained with the company for 14 years, holding various positions, including Managing Director of VIKING Nadiro.

The Coast Guard Research and Development Center (RDC), under the command of Capt. Michael Chien, has won the Commodore Viggo C. Bertelsen Jr. and Vice Admiral John P. Currier Auxiliary Integration Award in the category of Applied Innovation. The award was presented by Commander Steven Koch, who leads the Auxiliary (AUX) in New England, at a command all hands. The Auxiliary is the 25,000-member volunteer organization supporting the Coast Guard across 11 missions.Regional Auxiliary Commodore Michael West noted…

Dutch company Huisman has secured a contract from Subsea 7 for the delivery of its 500MT offshore mast crane for one of pipelay vessels for deep water installations.The 500mt Offshore Mast Crane will be equipped with a passive and active heave compensation system on the main hoist to counter-act the vessel’s heave motion when landing a product onto the seabed.Huisman has upgraded its heave compensation system with a variety of new control modes to extend the operational window…

Lloyd’s Register (LR) has certified Nova Scotia recycling facility, R.J. MacIsaac (RJMI), according to the requirements of the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships.RJMI has become first Canadian facility to be issued a Statement of Compliance (SoC) to the Hong Kong Convention for international ship recycling standards, which is scheduled to enter into force in June 2025.RJMI was required to demonstrate that its environmental protection, workforce safety and emergency preparedness systems surpass the stringent conditions of the convention.

Jeffersonville, Ind. based marine transportation company American Commercial Barge Line (ACBL) announced Steve Schappell has been appointed Senior Vice President of Logistics and Network Operations after entering the role on an interim basis in September.Schappell, who joined ACBL in July 2021 as Vice President of Supply Chain and Continuous Improvement, was selected for the position over several external candidates, the company said.Reporting directly to ACBL CEO Mike Ellis, Schappell is responsible for ACBL's Fleets, Terminals, and Interchange business unit.

As maritime faces transcendent changes in terms of decarbonization and automation, Juha Kytölä, Director of R&D and Engineering, Wärtsilä, discusses how this Finnish maritime technology powerhouse is investing in the technologies and facilities that will drive the maritime industry for the coming generation, including insights on its unique arrangement for a future fuel engine testbed onboard Wasaline’s MS Aurora Botnia.To start off, can you give a scope of the Wärtsilä R&D investment?We invest heavily in research and development, about 4.1% of our annual turnover.

The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) has implemented SkillGrader for simulation assessment in the Naval Officer Training Centre’s Navigation and Bridge Simulator (NABS) environment.Developed by Marine Learning Systems (MLS), SkillGrader will gather, store and report training metrics from student assessments. The project supports the RCN’s efforts to continuously enhance the quality of professional development of their Naval Warfare Officers.SkillGrader is a first of its kind tablet-based…

You can feel it in the air, and increasingly on the water: a steady increase in momentum toward a global economy that prioritizes sustainability. Government stakeholders at all levels, and shipping customers across industries, are setting ambitious goals and high expectations for environmental performance, and that includes the transportation of U.S. and global commerce on the waterways.For the tugboat, towboat and barge industry, which moves nearly 700 million tons of cargo on America’s rivers, coastal waters and Great Lakes annually, it’s both an exciting and challenging time.

Galveston Wharves has been awarded a $1 million grant for a shore-power pilot project in partnership with Texas A&M University at Galveston to reduce emissions from cargo shipping operations.Funded by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), the pilot project will include establishing an onshore electricity microgrid to provide a clean portable power source to a docked ship as an alternative to using the ship’s diesel-fueled auxiliary engines.The project study team will evaluate the microgrid’s feasibility…

Silver Ships promoted Jason Powers to Chief Operating Officer (COO). Previously, Powers held the role of Director of Business Development and has been a valued and dedicated member of the Silver Ships team for more than 25 years.As COO, Powers will direct daily production operations alongside the executive team and report directly to CEO, Steven Clarke. His responsibilities will include organizational leadership, process optimization, cost management, performance management and continuous improvement.

Norway/Uruguay-based Pesquera Azul’s has successfully trialed an innovative catch protection cage in whale-rich waters in the southern Indian Ocean. The company says it is a potential game-changer for the longline fishing industry as it grapples with the challenge of whale depredation.The steady increase in the whale population in sub-Antarctic fishing grounds is hampering the longline fishing industry, especially for fatty fish species. Whales have learned to snatch, for example…

Voluntary near-miss reporting scheme CHIRP Maritime is celebrating its 20th anniversary by introducing a new port sector safety newsletter alongside its regular 'Maritime FEEDBACK' editions.“We are thrilled to announce the launch of a new series of newsletters specifically tailored to ports and harbours for three specific reasons,” says Adam Parnell, Director (Maritime) at CHIRP. “Firstly, we aim to raise safety awareness among individuals by providing them with vital education and knowledge.

Four years after the fire aboard the Conception dive boat claimed 34 lives, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) renewed its call for the U.S. Coast Guard to require safety management systems (SMS) for passenger vessels. The recommendation, which the NTSB reissued following its investigation of the September 2, 2019, fire aboard the Conception, remains open.NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy sent a letter to the Coast Guard Commandant today emphasizing the need to issue the…

Canada's Irving Shipbuilding on Tuesday cut steel for the seventh Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship (AOPS), the first of two for the Canadian Coast Guard’s fleet. Celebrated at the Halifax Shipyard, the steel cutting of AOPS 7 marks the official start of construction on the vessel.The Canadian Coast Guard’s AOPS will be tasked with a wide range of missions. Both ships will operate as the Canadian Coast Guard’s primary platform with increased capabilities to support fisheries enforcement on Canada’s east coast…

By now, it is a well-known fact that the marine industry contributes significantly to the greenhouse gasses causing climate change—and the impact is predicted to rise as the demand for shipping by sea increases. Action is needed now, and the majority of ship operators are adopting or planning zero-emission solutions to accommodate upcoming emission reduction targets.A key zero-emission technology that will be a critical enabler for decarbonizing the marine industry—now and in the future—is hydrogen fuel cells.Today…

Damen Naval, a naval shipbuilding division of the Dutch Damen Shipyards Group,  has signed a contract with the first Dutch supplier for the four new Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Frigates to be built for the Dutch and Belgian Navies. Netherlands-based RH Marine will supply the Integrated Mission Management System (IMMS), the Integrated Navigation Bridge System (INBS), and the Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS) for each of the four frigates for the Dutch and Belgian Navies.

Seaspan Shipyards on Tuesday cut steel to build a “prototype block” marking a critical step in the Vancouver, B.C. shipyard’s Polar Icebreaker Program.Seaspan, which is designing and building the first heavy Polar Icebreaker in Canada in more than 60 years, said assembling the prototype block before full rate construction will allow it to test the new systems, processes, people and tools that are required to work with some of the very thick, specialized steel that needed to manufacture the complex vessel.

In February Gard published the results of its review of Lloyds Open Form (LOF). Their review indicated a disturbing reduction in the number of LOF contracts, and noted some other concerns with regard to loss of use of LOF in salvage situations.Lloyds Open Form is a classic and, in my mind, cherished, example of the core beauty of maritime. It combines a large number of maritime concepts into a simple device that solves a complex problem.It reminds me of a few of the lines in the song “Wooden Ships” by Crosby, Still, Nash and Young.

In no uncertain terms, the goal of “future capable” ship’s propulsion is confusing. We have been pressed into a regulatory environment that asks us to reduce emissions, and in the same breath deliver power sufficient to meet commercial schedules and allow the vessel to weather a storm and be safe at sea. To reach that end, owners are presented with a basket of new alternative fuels to achieve the latest January 1, 2023 Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) regulations. Add that most operators have no previous historical experience or data with these alternative fuels…

Interferry CEO Mike Corrigan explains the driving forces behind the global trade association’s imperative to keep its foot on the gas.Interferry and its members scaled some demanding peaks in 2022 but, to state the obvious, our work is never done. Facing an equally busy schedule of challenges and opportunities in the year ahead, we need to keep climbing – a truism that has been memorably expressed as ‘the top of one mountain is always the bottom of another’.Our 46th annual conference in Seattle last October was definitely one of the peaks…

Autonomous technology is adding value to the offshore wind (OSW) industry, its supply chains and government policy with the potential to deliver benefits such as increased operational efficiency and safety, and reductions in human error and operational costs. With the unique needs for wind leases and their relative close proximity to shore, a wider group of systems and technologies can be deployed.A developing regulatory landscapeAutonomous technology is the result of rapid advancements in sensors and imaging, vessel connectivity, machine learning, and more.

The L.S. Starrett Company, a manufacturer of precision measuring tools and gages, metrology systems and more, appointed Matthew Wells as Director of Operations and Continuous Improvement, responsible for Production, Planning, Production Control and Purchasing, Inventory Management, Warehouse and Shipping, Quality, Manufacturing Engineering, Facility, EHS, Maintenance and Continuous Improvement. Wells reports directly to Mr. Emerson Leme, Vice President, Starrett Industrial Products, North America.