Hamburg-based third-party ship manager Zeaborn Ship Management (ZSM) is trailblazing blended learning for seafarers with the implementation of Wärtsilä Voyage cloud-based simulators.
ZSM has selected Wärtsilä Voyage’s Cloud Simulation Solution to provide online training for masters and navigational officers. The cloud-based simulators will be used for COLREGS (Convention on the international regulations for preventing collisions at sea) courses with plans to expand the solution to enhance the competence of their crew in other navigational areas, and also engine and cargo handling.
Zeaborn is the first shipping company in Germany to use the new cloud simulation solution by Wärtsilä Voyage to train their seafarers.
Shipping is an industry where continuous learning is an essential part of the process. Seafarers are required to enhance their competence through various training courses, seminars, etc. But ever since the global outbreak of Covid-19, the pandemic has brought travel restrictions and stringent lockdown measures. Classroom training has become difficult or impossible to conduct. The situation, however, became manageable with Wärtsilä Voyage’s Cloud Simulation, which allowed instruction to be continued online while providing flexibility and efficiency.
For shipping companies, the availability of cloud simulation solutions ensure unparalleled advantage for training and assessment methods with smart technologies. - Johan Ekvall, Head of Product, Simulation and Training at Wärtsilä Voyage
“By making remote training via cloud services both feasible and coherent, Wärtsilä is providing a valuable tool that can support our customers in their strategic pursuit of greater efficiencies,” says Johan Ekvall, Head of Product, Simulation and Training at Wärtsilä Voyage.
Target Training
Zeaborn and Wärtsilä have created various exercises and tested them with seafarers based in different countries, from the Philippines to Europe, in the new cloud simulation solution. The feedback from the officers was extremely positive; they specifically noted accuracy and highly immersive experience of the online simulation environment, good comparability and evaluability of the training results.
“Wärtsilä Voyage’s Cloud Simulation allows us to customise our COLREGS training, specific to company needs. We can identify, then address those specific gaps in a skillset, rather than applying a generic ‘one size fits all’ overview training. We aim to keep these trainings short and focused on a particular area,” says Shane Rozario, Global Head of Training at Zeaborn Group.
ZSM is currently conducting two scheduled, Instructor led COLREGS courses, for 12 officers per week. Deck officers are routinely scheduled to go through the company trainings weekly. Assessments of current skills have identified scope for enhancing knowledge and expertise in these areas.
On top of the cloud for a holistic view
Furthermore, the possibility of linking Wärtsilä Voyage’s Fleet Operations Solution (FOS) and cloud simulation became an additional advantage for Zeaborn Ship Management. Earlier this year, Zeaborn achieved great benefits with the fleetwide introduction of Wärtsilä’s FOS on their managed wet fleet.
FOS is a connected Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS), integrating voyage planning functions into the mandatory electronic chart system and enabling a seamless ship-to-shore link. Zeaborn’s approach to digital innovation is grounded in how new tools help it to reach its business goals. By improving navigational safety, reducing crew burden and improving transparency of onboard operations, FOS is set to become a key part of the company’s drive towards safer and more efficient management of its customers’ fleets. Moreover, with the implementation of remote training via cloud services and its capacity to be interlinked with a connected ECDIS, the company is able to widen its digital horizons even further.
Sharing single-source data enables direct correlation of cause and effect. As we aim to target ‘specific training’, for key identified areas or where it is needed the most, a seamless data flow between different solutions will be highly efficient. - Shane Rozario, Global Head of Training at Zeaborn Group
Zeaborn has already used new digital tools to streamline several key areas of the business. These include lubricants purchasing, maintaining and reporting its vessels’ hazardous materials inventories and – in response to the new work regime imposed by the pandemic – a hybrid system of remote and on-site working for staff at its headquarters in Hamburg. It is the whole Smart Marine ecosystem that Zeaborn pays special attention to, as almost all stakeholders demand and requirements evolving in parallel with technical development and a multitude of big data collection and processing tools. “A transparent, holistic and modular approach to Zeaborn’s Smart Marine ecosystem needs to be substantially based on these values”, says Patrick Schwinke, Business Development Manager at Zeaborn Ship Management.
“Together with the modular and interdisciplinary linked product catalogue of Wärtsilä Voyage, our in-house expertise and the spirit we generate through cooperation with start-ups, we create added value not only for Zeaborn but at the same time for our customers.” - Patrick Schwinke, Business Development Manager at Zeaborn Ship Management
As future tech becomes more sophisticated, there are no doubts that the nature of these digital clouds – be they for remote training or integrated voyage planning – is not temporary, and they’re here to stay.