CASE STUDIE 1:

 

OVERHAUL OF "OBSOLETE" AMS (Alarm Monitoring System) - saving owners more than €100k!

 

On a ten-year-old German Built Container ship (Built 2005) the AMS that had been working erratically the last two year failed.

Already when the system started to work erratic the Maker stated that the system was obsolete and had to be replaced!

Due to this high cost, the system was left as it was hoping for the best.

The system failed when I had taken over the responsibility and realized the history. 

I contacted and sent ENTERAEN onboard a Sister ship to copy the AMS hard disk, whereby they traveled to the ship with the failed system and took the computer back to their premises for analysis.

Two weeks later they had repaired the "Obsolete" AMS Program and installed it on a new computer with SSD (Solid State Disc drive).

Next opportunity it was installed and all Alarm, Level gauging, graphics etc. all worked as when originally installed as New built.

 

CONCLUSION - Don't accept makers statement that systems are Obsolete as this is only due to the fact they don't have the competence anymore to repair - only produce New and ask for extortion prices for a repair - for you to accept their offer to "upgrade"

CASE STUDIE 2:

SERVICE AND BACKUP OF SHIPS COMPUTERS - saving owners huge costs for Off-hire, the cost for Service engineer, possible replacement and as above upgrade due to "obsolete" systems

 

During Drydocking or when I had ships reporting computer "problems" - anything from erratic computing to on/off problems etc. I sent ENTERAEN onboard to service the computers. 

 

The service I normally requested was

Copy all hard discs and mirror them onto an SSD

Replace "old" hard discs with a mirrored SSD

Keep a copy in the Ships safe - just in case.

Inspect and clean motherboards and computers in general.

Clean them out from strange programs and viruses (strange how much crew can get onto a "locked" computer.

And anything else Enteraen found required to have a full and reliable IT system onboard.

 

CONCLUSION - By being proactive reduce the risk for off-hires, vetting remarks etc., due to failing computers - saving - well we all know how much it costs in loss of income, cost for "add hock" service engineers, their transportation, issues to get onboard and who many times dont understand the system as it is "old" - but one thing is sure you know you did your best to mitigate the risk of a premature computer malfunction.