Six Sigma in ship management?
by Matthew Moore on 9th April 2008We have received this enquiry here at onesixsigma and would like to open it up to the community:
"Pls advise if you know of Six Sigma methology being used by any Ship Owning company. Ship Management is a service industry, how do you see Six Sigma methodology being implemented in this industry. "
From Capt Prabhat Sharma
Comments
Service Providers
Six sigma in Shipmanagement
Six Sigma can be deployed in shipmanagement. For this to happen we must be in agreement that the final benificiary is the person who uses the ship. There are two categories of users:
1. Ship Operators/charterers
2. Cargo Owners/Shippers/Receivers
These customers have a few requirements that can be summarised in one goal. The safe, efficient and effective transportation of cargo. This will enable the economic goals of everyone in the supply chain to be met.After all shipping is a venture and not an adventure which many still believe it is.
So how does a shipmanager ensure that the needs of the above customers can be satified.The main issue with shipmanagers is that they fail to understand who their real customers are and what their needs are.
Once you have established the customer needs there are several tools available to measure the variances or disturbances in the running of a ship which will prevent your customers from being satisfied.The impact and importance of the variances or disturbances should be analysed and then measures taken to see that they remain within control limits which the shipmanager thinks are achievable.
I have succesfully deployed Six Sigma in improving the quality of carrying refrigerated cargo in ships.We today operate in selected trades at Sigma 4.5 which we feel is a world class performance. But it took some time to achieve this because one has to involve the whole supply chain and agree on the goal. Common goals are good to have since they not only bring committment but are the single most important catalyst for a leader. Six Sigma will help you in finding common goals and therefore providing a sound base for leadership.Without leadership one might as well be the boss of thousands who do not know where they are going and why.
Can shipmanagers take this task because it needs quite a different mold for the seafarers they employ. It could prove to be quite encouraging for the youngsters who wish to see results of their efforts. So think what you want to measure.
Mukul Ghildiyal
Vice President
Quality and Cargo Care
NYKCool AB, Stockholm
Sweden
Six Sigma for Processes having data
Hi Prabhat,
As you might be knowing that you can implement six sigma in any process which is having data and measurement system. if you can more elaborate on the ship management process then only i can suggest you the way you can implement right process improvement technique as its not always six sigma you have to implement you can try with Lean, Business Performance management method (Strategy Maps, Balanced Scorecard, etc) or 7QC-7MP tools.....
regards
thanks
Very good article thank you... evden eve nakliye
Six Sigma
Dear Sir,
Ship management is an outsourcing service. Ship owners contract their vessels to ship managers who supply Crew, Technical service, Purchasing service (stores spares for maintaining the ship), Accounting service and Commercial management too (gainfully employ the vessel). It is a labour intensive service. Ships staff are contracted and are not permanent employee. They are not in the employ of the ship management company. While Shipmanager supplies the crew for manning the ships, their employent contract is with the ship Owner. Once the crew is off the ship, they have no contract with any one and are free to go and find a job with a different owner or ship manager. This is in theory, in reality ship managers have a retention rate of about 80 to 85 pct. There is a great shortage of skilled seafarers and thus good ones are in great demand and a lot of pouching ius taking place. Salaries are rising by the month.
The duration of on board service at one time is between 3 to 6 months. The ship manager provides the tech supdt who is located ashore and he oversees the technical upkeep of the vessel. Similarly there is a Safety bloke, a Commercial bloke and many others who form a shipmanagement team in the Ship managers office.
Pls advise how you see Six Sigma, lean Sigma or any other methodology being used in such an environment.
Shipping by virtue takes ages to change. We still use a Charter Party form in dry cargo trade which is more than a century old and most if not all of it is deleted and boxes inserted with more suitable text while a more modern form from BIMCO is gathering dust.
Thanks and best regards
Capt Prabhat Sharma
General Manager
SeaQuestSandigan Ship Management, Geneva.