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Task Assistant® IHM
Ulysses Systems in compliance with the EU Regulations and the Hong Kong Convention has developed a full Purchasing Module Extension to cover IHM needs.
Although, due to the versatility of Task Assistant®, the configuration for IHM was already available, the new Task Assistant® IHM extension has been developed as a fully-fledged solution that seamlessly integrates IHM compliance with the existing Purchasing processes, streamlining them to reduce bureaucracy, reduce unnecessary tasks and eliminate manual entry.
Click on Read More to see the list of Key Features…
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Κey features
- Optional and / or Mandatory use of the IHM rules
- Marking Spares and Stores as Hazardous Material
- Automatic Updates from Suppliers of Materials, listed in IHM Categories
- Registration of “Suppliers Document of Conformity – SdoC”
- Registration of “Material Declaration – MD”
- Transparent to/from the Vessel, Automated Inventory of Hazardous Materials as a by-product of the Procurement Process
Furthermore, Ulysses Systems in coordination with B2B e-commerce partners ShipServ and ProcureShip are preparing to expand e-commerce integration to include IHM related documentation.
Contact us to find out more!
The KPI Challenge
Key Performance indicators (KPI) and other related indicators are often hard to compare case by case or year on year. One reason is that each process has various aspects from a causal standpoint:
- Cause
A machinery defect or non-conformance can have many causes. Which one is to be selected as a KPI? - Effect
Perhaps the immediate effect of a defect or non-conformance is not so varied but this can vary too
Selecting KPI
So risk or potential effects for the same defect or non-conformance can vary greatly.
In fact, we spend days or even weeks each year preparing KPI, but do they help the management and decision making going forward ?
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Simpler data to reconcile such as data descriptions of spare parts or crew members’ experience descriptions involve less options. Even so we run into description variance requiring an important decision regarding which variances could constitute the KPI.
Integrating varied data points
We often hear about data driven decision making. How can we do this without reconciling data?
We as humans manage to reconcile varied data points because we understand how they are generated. But this is not always consistent in systems as there are often many considerations before we can arrive at a merging of data points.
Integration and Data Unification Are the Same Challenge
Reconciling data and integration have the same set of concerns. It is about knowing how the data generated. So before it attracts attention as a data point useful for decision making, it is important to recognise how it is generated.
Caring about data
For KPI to work, someone has to care. Someone who is committed to the domain and to extracting the data to assist decisions.
Task Assistant Integrated Reporting
Rich Results
“144,235 unique inventory items in stock,
469,551 inventory transactions”
@Gaslog
At Gaslog critical spares are auto-replenished
No crew member has to check for or order critical spares, which ensures peace of mind in both the office, but also on-board
After a requisition has been automatically raised, it is sent to the relevant role for approval before being dispatched to the office
Click on Read More to find out Integrated Reporting… Unified Data… Informative Data Trends…
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Integrated Reporting
Inventory Management integrates with Maintenance and Procurement.
This means Task Assistant ® enables spares consumption to be linked to scheduled and unscheduled maintenance
Replenishment is recorded seamlessly at PO delivery and storage locations can be assigned at a later date.
Unified Data
Task Assistant ® integrated applications mean that data is unified. This is a very strong argument in favour of a system that, by design, guarantees meaningful reports and data trends
Informative Data Trends
Task orientation is a core Task Assistant ® principle that ensures software emulates on-board work. It is the principle that promotes integrated reporting. The benefit is that reporting is effortless since the system by default understands the link between Maintenance, Procurement and Inventory management tasks.
As a result, related processes share the rich data, making decisions and information all the easier
TA Users Testimonial Inventory Management Task Orientation cmms pms Purchasing Data Asset Management
Task Assistant® Central Components Library
The Central Components Library
Ulysses Central or Μaster Component Library and vessel component setups constitute one system that reflects the real world of how machines are built and how they are maintained, and assures data integrity to support your decisions associated with these activities.
Why it is important
Machines are built in factories for many ships and industry applications.
It stands to reason that machines exist as meaningful functional components outside any particular ship, and behave in much the same way, regardless of where they are installed, although the conditions under which they work may differ.
So it makes sense to build software that models the world of machinery in a way that acknowledges the commonalities of machines, regardless of which ship they are in, and also captures machine ship duty, which is the live ship specific data that will affect the decisions about the machines.
Click on Read More to find out How it works… What it resolves… Some of the benefits…
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How it works
The Central Components Library is a database of ships’ technical components; each component with its spare parts, maintenance information and full history, stored centrally and linked to common core descriptions.
Instances of components per ship are derived from the Central Library while retaining the core commonality of identifications.
New information from ship’s duty and requisitions is completed locally but also available centrally.
What it resolves
This is in contrast to defining each of these components individually, thus introducing different identifications for each ship when in fact they are the same machines with just serial number difference. Since components are originally sourced from the same manufacturers, who define the ways in which we identify parts and perform procurement, it is the natural approach to retain unified information for the same machinery and parts across the fleet.
Some of the benefits
An assets management system with a central component library favours statistical comparisons and offers overviews of component maintenance and procurement which makes it a very powerful tool in controlling and optimising life-cycle costs.
cmms pms Data Asset Management Master Components Setup Central Components Library
Cloud and Data Trending
UNIFIED DATA IS A MATTER OF REALLY CARING
Insights from data trends
When the discussion is data trending, software vendors need to focus on data being unified. The reason is that, in 2020, marine enterprises are keener than ever to gain insights into their cloud hosted data.
Unified data
There are concerns, however. If component and spares ID’s are not unified then the trending can only start after the data has been unified. In which case, the question that begs to be answered is, how do you introduce unified technical data retroactively?
Or do vendor offerings concern only data that will be produced in the future?
How appealing and forward-looking is a system, which does not consider trending on existing data?
LET’S TALK “COORDINATION”
Dry-docking is high consequence work. This means that the people involved are highly paid for their time and attention. Also, technical projects are expensive and fraught with co-ordination challenges that require diligence and smart thinking. They therefore require decision-making support and information dissemination at the time of need, which Ulysses specialises in.
10.055.904 to be precise…
Data analytics
Our computerized maintenance management system favours machinery component comparisons and offers across-the-fleet overviews of component maintenance and procurement, which makes it a very powerful reporting tool for crews.
Easy-to-use
The crew-centric design makes it eminently user friendly. Errors are avoided, users are guided and usability encourages whole-scale usage.
Super-fast take-up
It’s is not surprising, therefore, that engineers consistently and regularly report, which explains passing the amazing threshold of 10.000.000 job completions on the client site of Bourbon Offshore, on the single shore-side database.
Performance
Furthermore it is hugely gratifying because whole scale usage of this scale proves the resilience and performance of the Task Assistant platform
Performance cmms Task Orientation pms Data Asset Management Master Components Setup Central Components Library
Our COO and CTO talk about Ulysses-Systems and VesselMan integration
On September 16, first call sponsorship winners were invited to the Norwegian Embassy. Ulysses Systems is proud the solution Connected Maintenance System being realised with VesselMan (Norway) was chosen out of many for funding by Innovation Norway.
Ulysses systems wishes the new second call candidates success in their projects
Integration Athens Events EEA and Norway Grants
IN SOFTWARE TOO, TEAMWORK IS BEST ACHIEVED WITH A MANAGER
In software, systems integration requires the stakeholders to be close, just as in football, where owner, manager and players need to be close.
And like football, the stakeholders need to communicate their plays.
And the language needs to be common.
https://blog.ulysses-systems.com/in-software-too-teamwork-is-best-achieved-with-a-manager/
https://blog.ulysses-systems.com/what-is-the-problem-today-with-integration-2/
ERP Integration Best of Breed Team Work
BIENVENIDO!
WE ARE EXCITED TO WELCOME KOSTAS GOLES BACK!
Most of us know Kostas from his key position at Bourbon Offshore as Project Coordinator for the Task Assistant®.
Kostas combines rich practical experience with impressive academic accomplishment.
He holds graduate and post graduate degrees in engineering, aeronautics, information systems and economics with business strategy, a record hard to compete with!
He also speaks seven languages…German, Italian, Spanish, French, Japanese, English and Greek… maybe he learned another one yesterday!
We feel certain that Kostas will contribute hugely to our Team, putting his valuable experience to good use delivering services to large accounts and boosting customer satisfaction.
New publication: MAPMAKERS vs OPAQUERS
In my mind-map I can resolve and explain a seeming discrepancy, but in the world of software logic, the business case of spelling a middle name in two different ways becomes quite opaque, like Kafka’s mysterious bureaucracies and dark corridors.
How can my software reconcile records that exist for years in their various forms in different database locations and relationships? How can I find the logic that prevails?
Read more
In today’s applications, the user interface, if you can find the right one, tells a stakeholder what data is for by relying on the stake-holders mental model of a process. But it does not tell the stakeholder how the data is converted so that, for example, a person’s identification credentials are accepted.
How can mapmaking help solve this?
What is the problem today with integration? 2
In Football practice team members discuss and demonstrate their moves in various scenarios. They don’t just agree when to pass the ball.
Integration is similar in that it’s not a translation from a source to a destination.
It is an understanding of what each participant does and is likely to do with the shared information.
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Restricting this to data field exchange is similar to agreeing when to pass a ball: It assumes no one will vary the scenarios.
In a world where computers are undisputedly productivity tools, we can’t slow down productivity improvements either via monolithic applications or by applying unsophisticated integration. We need teamwork.
LATEST!
Ulysses Systems PMS and VesselMan Drydock Systems Integration
A Business Innovation Greece Program 2014-2021 Project
Financed by EEA and Norway Grants
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6704084920987467776
Integration Best of Breed EEA and Norway Grants
What is the problem today with integration? 1
Perhaps the same problem as the focus on team work.
Before computing became an essential productivity tool, the benefits from constant improvement were not obvious.
For example, bringing all your information together for a purchasing decision and not having to access e-mails and applications separately.
Similarly, before football reached today’s level of sophistication, having one star player in a provincial team was good enough. But to compete in world class football, team management is not an afterthought. Software is similar…
Read more
Software is similar, in that productivity can increase tremendously going forward.
We can think of the software vendors, who can increase the productivity of an enterprise, as being the star players.
Can you expect one vendor to increase your productivity to the highest level possible in every module? If not who will make sure you can access the highest productivity in every module?
People that care about productivity and know the marine business like the backs of their hands.
People that care about how your systems integrate with the highest productivity tools.
Day of the Seafarer
Wishing all seafarers health to them and their loved ones.
Swift Repatriation for those trying to get home and a return to normalcy to those looking to get back into the world.
Configurability : Orion Bulkers
In Shipmanagement the brittle companies falter whilst the pliable prevail.
Regulations change, opinions change, management changes …
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All of the above are not only possible, but likely if not inevitable within the lifecycle of your Shipmanagement solution and while your company may be prepared for these scenarios, that does not mean that your software is.
At Ulysses we have come across countless companies that know exactly what they want to change, how they want to change and until when.
The only thing holding them back is the brittleness of their software.
Ulysses offers a configurable platform that can be torn down and built from scratch without losing historical data at a pace that is faster than other systems get deployed.
TA Users ERP Testimonial Configuration
TA Mobile Applications – Now available on App Store and Google Play
For R10 clients, TA Mobile is now available for download on both Apple Store and Google Play Store!
Contact us to assist you setting it up!
New Release TA Mobile App Configuration
Ulysses Customer Service: Arcadia Shipmanagement
Arcadia -established in Athens in 1998- was one of the first shipmanagers to adopt a computerized maintenance management system with the implementation of the Task Assistant in 2005
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“At Arcadia Shipmanagement we have been using the Task Assistant since 2005
During this long period we have worked with many Ulysses consultants and support engineers
Solutions and dedication have been a continuing guarantee
Ulysses’ high staff retention rates have been very useful with a number of Ulysses people having served us for over a decade”
About Arcadia:
In 2007 Arcadia won the Lloyds list “Tanker Company of the year” and a Green Award certificate holder
Green Award certified companies and vessels are entitled to various incentives to encourage their socially responsible behavior.
All of Arcadia’s vessels fly the Greek flag whilst placing great importance to the long tradition of Greece being at the forefront of the Maritime Industry.
Arcadia also hosts the offices of Olympiacos Basketball Club which has seen the most successful years of its history under the current management
https://www.greenaward.org/sea-shipping/organisation/
https://www.arcadiasm.gr/news-events/24-tanker-company-of-the-year2007.html
TA Users ERP Testimonial Services
Task Assistant and ShipServ
ShipServ is a leading e-Procurement platform for the marine industry
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Task Assistant Asset Management software is enhanced by a streamlined procurement process that is enabled by its integration with ShipServ
Task Assistant data quality facilitates a more comprehensive leveraging of the value offered by ShipServ by:
– Offering better potential in discovering trends through management reports
– Assisting shipmanagers in increasing economies of scale
Exmar Upgrades all 45 vessels to latest Task Assistant version
Most recently Exmar Shipmanagement upgraded to the latest version of the Task Assistant.
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Big Change
It was a five version leap which is both unusual and challenging and many new features were enabled for users
The upgrade required good preparation, planning and execution by the joint Exmar and Ulysses teams
Vetting Inspections
Execution was even trickier considering that three vessels had planned vetting inspections at the time of the upgrade, but in the end disruption and downtime were both minimal
The vessels that had planned audits continued to use the previous version until the inspections were concluded and were then subsequently upgraded
Users went home on Friday closing having worked on the previous version and on Monday at opening went straight to using the latest version
About Task Assistant Upgrades
Ulysses produces regular TA upgrades which are available to all users upon release.
TA upgrades are interoperable which allow vessels to operate on different versions.
This eliminates the risks of upgrade execution, ensuring a smooth transition from one version to another.
All shipmanagers that have used the TA have successfully upgraded multiple versions.
Hotfixes are installed automatically on all workstations and on every version.
Ulysses Athens: WFH extended for another two weeks
As Greece begins easing restrictions on movement; and with no one being able to rule out the rekindling of the threat, Ulysses has decided to extend working from home for another two weeks.
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The past few months have seen the world united in having to make drastic lifestyle changes and tough choices
The swiftness with which this disruption has come upon us has people scrambling to select what seems like the lesser of two or multiple evils
The residents of Greece have until now managed to navigate through this initial phase with success but murky waters still lie ahead until everything is back to normal
Let’s hope this is the beginning of people’s lives swiftly but carefully going back to normal.
TA Inventory: Results Matter – Gaslog
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No crew member has to check for or order critical spares, a process that ensures peace of mind in both the office, but also on-board
After a requisition has automatically been raised, it is sent to the relevant role for approval before dispatched to the office
TA enables spares consumption to be linked to scheduled and unscheduled maintenance
Replenishment is recorded seamlessly at PO delivery and storage locations can be assigned at a later date
Task Orientation ensures that software emulates on-board work
Exmar Tango
One of the most expensive vessels in the world, the Exmar Tango FLNG, runs Task Assistant
TA Inventory: Results Matter – Naftomar
Under FiFo, the oldest costs will be the first costs of consumables to be removed from the balance sheet.
By first consuming the oldest spare, Naftomar significantly reduces the risk of inventory obsolescence.
Most impressive are the high levels of company buy-in to produce such precision.
https://www.naftomar.gr/
Check out how Naftomar have been using TA Inventory Assistant facilities to monitor the quality and value of their inventory.
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About the Task Assistant Inventory Management
The Task Assistant facilitates FiFo uniquely and at every step of the way.
TA Inventory Management Applications produce FiFo as part of normal PMS use which significantly reduces workload on-board and ashore.
Consumption and Deliveries are properly reported as a by-product of fluid and flexible workflows offered by Task Assistant Workbench Facilities.
Inventory reporting therefore comes automatically without extra effort.
ECM Application
R10 Release! includes the NEW Event Coordination Management Application (ECM).
Available to all the Task Assistant users with the next upgrade.
Ulysses Learning 
Find out about our affiliate Ulysses Learning and what they are doing to assist companies make such big and swift shifts in the way they work!
Our colleagues at Ulysses Learning are assisting companies in making these very large shifts in these very difficult times. We are proud of them!
Ulysses Learning specializes in e-learning and performance improvement solutions with a strong presence in Financial Services. Energy. Telecom and Healthcare.
Social distancing has increased the workload of customer-care centers while drastically changing the way work.
This added responsibility is felt the most in Healthcare where Ulysses Learning has an especially strong presence.
Mumbai in lockdown
TA Mobile Application
Available to all the Task Assistant users with the next upgrade.
Vikram!
This month marks the 16th anniversary of Ulysses’ presence in Mumbai.
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What we have been most proud of over this period has been our staff retention rate with 8 current employees counting more than a decade at Ulysses. None more emblematic than Vikram Purohit who joined Ulysses a few months after our office opened in 2004. If you are a Ulysses Systems customer, in all likelyhood you are familiar with Vikram as our reliable, hard-working colleague with the most positive of attitudes. Above all Vikram is a culture-setter at Ulysses, an example we urge our younger employees to aspire to and an image we would like to project to our clients. Thank you Vikram! Truly one of a kind.
Bying Software…or new Nikes? ERP Implementation Failures
It doesn’t take a an expert of even a professional to know about ERP implementation failures.
According to Gartner 70% of ERP projects take too long to implement, overshoot their budget – and most importantly – don’t deliver the expected business benefits.
The cost of these ERP implementations can be so high that they can bring even the biggest corporations to their knees.
Read more
In these strange times…
In these strange times our minds turn to the wellbeing of our Ulysses-Systems community, especially the seamen, who not only continue to run the world’s supply chain but in many cases cannot disembark and be with their families. We have rapidly prepared for this situation, working hard so that you, our valuable customer community, can carry on without significant business disruptions or lapses, continuing to benefit from our outstanding support. Feel free to contact us to give you tips, best practices and new solutions on how to setup and operate the Task Assistant from home.
Buying Software or… new Nikes? ERP Configuration
Leave the customisations for your outfits. In software ‘configuration’is the word.
At Ulysses we understand that all companies are different, which is why we offer abstracted features ready to be extended or consumed through our Task Assistant Workbench and API Facilities.
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The ERP ice age has finally come to an end!
ERP solutions, which originated in the 80’s and 90’s, were developed to simplify the book-keeping process and improve its accuracy. The goal was straight forward: let’s record “how much we spend”.
Discovering “Why we spend” was then unsuccessfully attempted through reports that broke costs down into cost centres and SFI codes.
Surprisingly, even the most recent maritime ERP solutions have taken this book-keeping centric design, hoping that “latest fashion” in technologies might bring them up to date, rather like dinosaurs dressing-up… because in the maritime ERP world today, dinosaurs are dressing up in the latest fashion!
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Ulysses Systems CMMS design started from Maintenance with Purchasing and Accounting as supporting functions, not vice versa, because expenses recorded in Accounting systems and incurred through Purchasing systems depend on technical concerns. Unless the technical concerns are addressed, we cannot evaluate the expenses.
The type of concerns current in the industry and needing answers being:
- Why do we need this expensive spare part so often?
- How can this specific pump run so many hours without maintenance on one vessel and not on another?
- How much will we be spending on our assets in the future?
The why and the how must accompany the purchase and the expense that we register in accounting.
The result of focusing primarily on accounting breaks down our industry, and especially the technical part, into broad categories that can only serve for comparing a coarsely grouped set of expenses from year to year.
The drawback is that these broad categories do not tell us why we incur expenses or how to mitigate them. They don’t even help attract attention to problem areas, since technical problems are solved at the root, which is technical, and not via aggregated expense groups unrelated to what caused them.
Technical questions were built into the Task Assistant ® architecture, which is why today the TA is a benchmark for maintenance systems in the maritime industry.
The conversation today shifts towards high-ROI features and real value creations. We believe that a gradual and consistent transition towards a business-centred direction is valuable for the entire marine industry.
D. Lyras: Software that makes crew life easier while increasing productivity
HAMBURG – October 15th, 2019. Tanker Operator Supporting seafarer performance and productivity – making better use of technology
Shipboard Connectivity
Meet us at Bergen The Digital Ship, Dimitris Lyras will moderate “Shipboard Connectivity” CIO Forum https://lnkd.in/dKjeh8R
Ulysses Systems was happy to attend the Ammitec Pita Cutting Event!
Onboard the youngest TA installation: the impressive TMS Cardiff Gas Ltd.
La Seine preparing for her maiden voyage!
Visiting one of our most long-lasting clients Chellaram Shipping Pvt Ltd
