EDITORIAL
2/2016
CERTIFIED FOR SUCCESS?
Subcontractors of the marine industry need to stay on their toes –
as the bar is set quite high. According to a recent University of Turku
study (composed by Brahea, the Centre for Maritime Studies) top
qualities in a subcontractor are perceived to be the ability to stick to
the schedules, reliability, quality and know-how. These same issues
kept surfacing in the report, time and again, as the researchers
sought to find out – in addition to most important qualities – also
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areas for development and those reasons that led to the termination
of subcontracting.
But what is the significance of being certified? How important is
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Petri Charpentier
this in the eyes of the maritime players? Perhaps it comes as a surprise
to some that in the ranking of the desired attributes, ‘Necessary
PROJECT MANAGER
certification (e.g. CE markings)’ comes in at 11th. However, with a
Jaakko Lätti
grade of 3.73/5, the certification issue is assessed to be a good deal
closer to ‘important’ than ‘somewhat important’.
Talking about quality, the report states flat out that most
EDITORIAL COORDINATOR
Vappu Virtanen
customers do not require the use of a quality system as such. Proof of
know-how must be provided, of course, but this can be achieved via
references, recommendations and audits. The report also shows that
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Riitta Yli-Öyrä
‘Necessary certification’ is one area where the study participants do
not see eye-to-eye (as is the case with most issues), and that there are
those who value it quite high, while others downplay its significance.
For example, the interviewed shipyards do not require their
subcontractors to use audited quality systems if the company’s
CONTRIBUTORS
Sami J. Anteroinen
Merja Kihl
Ari Mononen
own project management and quality control are deemed to be of
sufficiently high standard.
Still, the offshore industry runs a tighter ship in this regard. For
COVER PHOTO
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd
instance, Technip’s Pori operations insist on subcontractors having
quality systems and standards in place: normally there won’t even be
a deal without a ISO9001 certificate.
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A quality system and audits were assessed to be ‘especially
important’ also by Rolls Royce and Steerprop. Both of these
companies have their own audit teams which verify and document –
together with the suppliers – the quality of the deliveries.
The ‘Open comments’ section of the study provided further food
for thought. Subcontractors had very specific ideas about how to
improve their operations, ranging from quality systems and recruiting
to visibility and marketing. Still, first and foremost on subcontractors’
mind – as they peer into the future – is controlling production and the
ever-important costs.
PETRI CHARPENTIER
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seatec 2/2016