SEMICS – Smart Electronic Maritime Information- and Communication System on Board

The model here is aviation - there hasn’t been any paperwork in the cockpit or in the cabin for a long time now. Now shipping is following suit: to increase ship and occupational safety on board, Beluga Fleet Management is developing an information and communication system for the “paperless” ship.

The objective is to further improve communication processes between experts on shore and at sea and make the flow of information faster and more reliable. During in-depth talks with captains of the Beluga fleet it quickly became evident that higher demands have to be met by the communication system. The new system, for instance, is designed to automatically update data, manuals and order lists and automatically copy them in all departments so that manual notification processes are no longer necessary.

The Fleet Management experts assume that three to four hours of administrative work a day can be saved through these innovations and the crew members can devote themselves even more intensively to their core duties, management and maintenance of the vessel. Furthermore, the new system shall enable the crew to order needs like fuel, spare parts and catering online directly at the company headquarters in Bremen. Checklists and documents for ordering procedures, maintenance checks as well as signatures at interfaces can be entered and recorded via PC on a touchscreen. The portable PCs are connected to the shipboard network via a WLAN link in such a way that they can be used on the entire ship and in the immediate area on shore.

Beluga Fleet Management will implement the project on two of the first vessels of the P2 series. Further informations you can find at www.semics.de.

Applicant/Project Coordinator:
Beluga Fleet Management GmbH & Co. KG
Project partners: Interschalt maritime systems AG, Merentis GmbH, ITEMIS AG, Institut für interaktive Medien GmbH, Fachbereich Seefahrt der Fachhochschule Wilhelmshaven/Oldenburg/Elsfleth in Elsfleth, Nikdin Gestaltung, Germanischer Lloyd, Lufthansa Flight Training GmbH
Associated partners: Verband Deutscher Reeder, Kommando Marineführungssysteme aus Wilhelmshaven
Support: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research
Planned project period: 01.09.2008 – 31.08.2011

Beluga Shipping GmbH
Research & Innovation
Dr. Ralf Wöstmann
Teerhof 59, 28199 Bremen, Germany

Please note as well Beluga’s great commitment to the

Maritime Campus Elsfleth and the

Maritime Research Centre in Elsfleth