Lifecycle concepts that reduce costs
Blog post by Hervé Touzard, Vice President Spares, and Nicolas Lesbats, Vice President Maintenance, at ALMACO Service Division
Digital tools bring measurability
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”, said Peter Drucker. Today’s digitalization tools give access to real-time data, which provides the possibility to improve efficiency and save costs. With the help of real-time data, decision makers get deep intel about complex systems and operation inefficiencies that can be avoided.
The hotel, especially catering, areas onboard are an ecosystem of which decision makers still have very little facts to base their decisions on.
Digital service tools can be used for planning future projects’ layouts and maintaining equipment more efficiently. However, this means installing hardware for data collection is only the beginning. Processes for analysing the data and turning it into actionable knowledge available to all users, both onboard and ashore and for users and managers, is also crucial.
Outsourcing and “servitization”
Scarce resources and extremely tight budgets have caused operational optimization to become front and centre for owners and operators. Outsourcing service tasks, such as procurement, supply chain and maintenance, is one way to minimize risks and cut down on fixed costs.
By grouping lifecycle services into three groups, simple repetitive tasks, specialist tasks and strategical tasks, owners and operators can build a tailor-made lifecycle plan that suits their specific organisation. They can reinforce their own inhouse capabilities for the commodities of strategical importance and outsourcing tasks that are simple and repetitive and tasks that require external specialists.
Due to the recent economic downturn, many manufacturers are leaning more towards creating “servitization” models, meaning a stronger focus on producing durable and easy-to-serve equipment, while outsourcing maintenance and replacement to preferred partners specialized in marine lifecycle services.
Both sides of the chain, meaning owners and manufacturers, are interested in sharing the burden of lifecycle management with specialized companies that can bundle volumes and various brands together.
The new way to do lifecycle management
Combining digitalization with outsourcing of certain lifecycle tasks, offers the possibility to discover new and more cost-efficient ways to operate hotel areas. In a world where “nice to have projects” have disappeared, it becomes inevitable that new business models will emerge and become the “must have” projects of tomorrow.
