OCIMF’s Guidelines of Safety Critical Equipment and Spare Parts may be of interest to some:
Insurance companies pack a lot of weight, You may assume the ability to switch liability over to one of these paid maintenance companies when they screw up is preferable to trying to soak whatever the engineer has in his bank account ! Again, follow the money and the trend. Technology wins and advances… eventually.
We had the Cat computers… I don’t know how one can stay at sea long without them. they are all going the way of John Deere. Another reason to go foreign… till they catch up !!
A new online spare part ordering service are on offer for worldwide shipping:
A similar system using universal numbering and catalogues in different languages has been in existence for many years: SFI Coding and Classification System
it’s coming to this ; there are fewer and fewer manufacturers, competition for lower price drives efficiency & production runs, international parts distribution uniformity, and laws/rules mandating conformance to the more obscure things driving all the above. Eventually there will be very few manufacturers and spare parts of course will be at all major ports. If you work in the darker corners of the earth you’ll pay thru the nose to get those parts, like you do now but it’ll be worse! The car industry is a shining example where competition (nationally) has been run out (de lorean/tucker) and you couldn’t start a new car company even if you had the best 100 yr. ahead thinking on your side.
If you have problem with getting spare parts, get yourself a 3D printer:
PS> Does that mean that this Dutch idea is outdated already? Maybe not quite yet.
3d printer in each port and drone to fly the parts out, thats the future
Is the maritime industry ready to accept spares made this way?
Can you see a 3d printer onboard?