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Fire and Evacuation

Mapping

competence

the key to global excellence

safety service
in

D
ag Rune Rensmoen of Wilhelmsen Ships Service Mr Rensmoen and his colleagues at WSS headquarters in

knows his safety service technicians better than they Oslo, Norway, irst created four levels of ability – apprentices,
know themselves. Despite there being some 250 menassistant technicians, technicians and senior technicians

and women spread across 60 service stations in 39 different – setting out clear requirements for each level.
countries, he has them mapped and says this is key to building Individual experience, both with WSS and elsewhere,

a stronger, safer, service organisation – one where qualiied training, qualiications and certiicates were then
assessed and gaps in skills identiied, with training
expertise comes as standard.
“The footprint of WSS is a huge competitive advantage packages planned to allow technicians to fulil their on-

for us within this global industry, but it is also a challenge,” the-job potential.
said the company’s Global Service Operations Director, Customer requirements were also considered

Technical Services.to ensure individual service centres could meet their
“We want our customers to receive the same high specialist service needs, with gaps again identiied and

standards of service every time our technicians pay them a illed through training.
visit. If everyone was based in one location that would be easy “We have to have the competence in place to satisfy

to enforce but when they are spread from Santos to Shanghai, those needs,” said Mr Rensmoen. “It’s no use having
and from Miami to Barcelona, well, it becomes a little harder.”competence in station A if it’s needed in Station B, so that was a

WSS has been providing inspection, reporting, maintenance crucial part of the process.”
and repair services for ire and safety systems and equipment He believes standardisation of service is central to

for over 40 years and in that time it has established a network exploiting WSS’s global presence – for instance, he wants a

of bases all of which are certiied to ISO9001:2008, and customer with a dry powder ire-ighting system in Fujairah
operate in accordance with IACS UR Z17 approvals, enabling it to get identical service to one in New York, and the key to

to carry out 21,000 vessel services a year.standardisation, he says, is training.
“We’re here to make sure our customers’ equipment is In tandem with the mapping intitiative, WSS has revamped

operating exactly as intended and fully compliant with all the training centres that will plug any competence gaps and
relevant rules and regulations,” said Mr Rensmoen.it has actually reduced the number of centres from ive in

“This is equipment that we hope will never be used, but ifBelgium, UAE, US, China and Singapore to just two in Belgium
it is then it has to work to its optimal ability. If you’re unable to and China.

ensure that, or aren’t aware of the latest regulations, then the Mr Rensmoen explained: “The centres were all quite new,
ramiications could be fatal. We’re here to lift that burden from established between 2010 and 2013, and individually effective.

the shoulders of ship owners and operators, allowing them to However, we wanted to streamline and optimise the training

get on with doing what they do best. It’s a position of trust and we offer to our own employees, sub-contractors and customer
one we work hard to deliver on.”service representatives.

Over the past six months, this hard work has been focused “We came to the conclusion that it would be easier to
on assessing individual technician competence to ensure the provide continuous, consistent standards at fewer facilities. By

global team operates with single global standards.centralising the training at two regional super centres covering

16 | The Ship Supplier | Issue 68 2016