ERMA FIRST technical after sales director Panagiotis Dalianis describes the ballast water treatment provider’s after-sales support, 24/7 technical assistance and worldwide service stations
At ERMA FIRST, after-sales customer support is any type of support provided to a customer after the product has been purchased. Upon completing this transaction, the customer and maker enter into a ‘marriage’ covering the full lifetime of the vessel.
Marine equipment makers are fully aware their clients’ specific requirements are driven by the nature of their business. The complexity of vessel operations makes providing support more difficult than in other industries, especially when the equipment must perform in line with environmental regulations – as is the case with ballast water treatment systems (BWTS).
Providing services to a ship at sea demands round-the-clock live support, readily available spare parts and experienced engineers stationed in strategic locations so that travelling, idle time and expenses are minimised.
ERMA FIRST has developed a comprehensive customer support network, servicing more than 3,500 vessels worldwide. We have maintained robust support during global challenges, including the Covid-19 pandemic, international conflicts, and maritime security issues.
Each of these challenges required action to maintain robust support for our systems on board vessels. To overcome travel restrictions during the pandemic, we established service stations worldwide, enabling us to deliver and commission our systems irrespective of where the installation was planned. Our service stations have also allowed us to attend vessels to provide services related to troubleshooting and maintenance upon commissioning.
We currently have service stations with experienced engineers in:
China: Shanghai, Zhoushan, Dalian, Guangzhou; Korea: Busan; Vietnam: Hai Phong; Singapore; India: Mumbai; Japan: Osaka; UAE: Dubai; Turkey: Istanbul; Greece: Piraeus; Italy: Naples; France: Marseille; the Netherlands: Rotterdam; Germany: Hamburg; Poland: Gdansk; Latvia: Jelgava; USA: New York; Canada: Vancouver; and Panama.
From these stations, our engineers can reach every location where our clients may require service or maintenance.
Future plans include strengthening local teams in key maritime regions such as the Amsterdam–Rotterdam–Antwerp area. Finding experienced personnel can be challenging in Northern Europe, but we are on the way to finding solutions.
Another difficulty we had to overcome was the lack of availability of certain parts due to supply chain disruption during – but mainly after – the pandemic. At the time, we faced unexpected delays in production and delivery, especially where electronic parts were concerned, causing frustration for some clients. We have since established new channels to source these parts and now keep them in stock. Of course, delays can still occur, but only very rarely do they interrupt the systems operability.
Delivery time is sometimes affected by the location where spare parts are stored. We have created stocking points worldwide – primarily to reduce delivery time but also to help our local service teams access the most commonly required spare parts, wearables, and the consumables used during attendances. Aside from our main warehouse in Greece, our stocking points are located in Shanghai, Busan, Singapore, Dubai, Istanbul, Rotterdam, Copenhagen, New York, Vancouver, and Panama.
In addition to establishing stocking points, we are working to provide clients with critical or recommended spare parts to have on board, to resolve issues most commonly arising during operations. With critical spare parts on board the vessel, system restoration can usually be performed by crew, eliminating the process of sourcing the required part and sending it aboard or, in particularly urgent cases, having someone deliver it by hand. Recommended parts are typically ‘plug and play’ or come with simple instructions from our technical support team to help crew carry out installation without a service engineer.
A 24/7 telephone technical support line has been established to address urgent technical issues promptly. With a team of experts now available to answer calls or emails day and night, every urgent technical issue that arises can be handled swiftly. Live support also facilitates direct communication between technical representatives or vessel crew and our technical support engineers, minimising time to resolution.
In addition, we are developing a spare parts portal so clients can view the major components of our systems along with the recommended/critical parts and the maintenance and calibration kits specific to systems installed. The portal is expected to be launched in the second half of 2024.
The after-sales support includes comprehensive maintenance services aimed at assisting vessel crews with regulatory inspections and system upkeep. Our holistic approach includes the provision of maintenance services that aim to assist vessel crew in passing all necessary inspections by authorities such as PSC, USCG, AMSA, Class, Flag, Vetting, and RightShip, among others, while keeping the system in good working condition. Maintenance schemes include the replacement of necessary wearable parts to keep components in optimum condition, execute sensor calibration, and uphold crew training standards to ensure their preparedness for potential inspections. All of this is included in ERMA FIRST’s Maintenance Services proposal to clients.
Yet another crucial consideration is having alternative solutions in place in case a component becomes obsolete due to a vendor’s commercial decisions. At ERMA FIRST, we design our systems to avoid such circumstances, with our experienced technical team applying alternative components and certifying them in a timely manner.
BWTS are relatively new in the industry, and although the learning curve was initially steep, it has now levelled out. Our technical team thoroughly investigates any incident that affects the operability of our systems and, upon completion of a root-cause analysis, plans and executes countermeasures to avoid a recurrence of the issue. We regularly publish technical bulletins to keep vessel owners and crew up to date, and keep our designs under continuous review to offer systems upgrades as required.
We also regularly liaise with our clients in live or virtual meetings, recognising feedback as the most important factor in helping us to improve the support we offer for our systems.
Acknowledging the specific risks maritime stakeholders face if systems become inoperable, we support our technologies with spares and services on a through-life basis. We also regard after-sales support as a powerful tool for building strong customer relationships, promoting loyalty, and differentiating our business from competitors. For this reason, while implementing an effective strategy can be challenging, we are always ready to adopt new ideas to improve our services.
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