Pushing Forward: Utilising automation to ensure ship owners are IHM compliant

In March, during the International Maritime Organization's (IMO's) 81st meeting of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC), the subject of ship recycling and the Hong Kong Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships was high on the agenda as ship owners and operators sought further clarification to ensure the requirements of the regulation are clear and well-defined.
 

With the Hong Kong Convention due to come into force in June 2025, ship owners are looking to ensure their vessels meet all the required conditions of the regulation for recycling purposes. This includes the requirement to maintain a detailed list of ship-specific information on hazardous materials present on board, their location and approximate quantities, known as an Inventory of Hazardous Materials (IHM) , throughout a vessel's lifetime, which can be up to 30 years depending on the vessel type.
 

Most vessels contain a number of hazardous materials within its structure. For example, asbestos is one of the most common hazardous materials found onboard, most notably in engine rooms where it is used to provide thermal insulation and fire resistance. Other hazardous materials include heavy metals, toxic oil and a number of carcinogens that can be exposed to vessel crews and workers at recycling yards.
 

This list is vital in order to mitigate risk, potential liabilities and enhance the safety of vessels, their crew and the environment. However, compiling and maintaining an IHM list for a commercial vessel requires a great deal of time and resources due to the quantity and varying number of hazardous products that are delivered and maintained on board. Ship owners are now turning to technology to streamline the IHM process and enhance collaboration between themselves and their suppliers.
 

Ms. Angeliki Papathanasiou, Head of Operations at Procureship, the Greek-based e-procurement software provider, said," Shipping companies are being told by the IMO about the need to comply with relevant IHM regulations. Our users, many of whom are responsible for sending and receiving IHM documents on a regular basis, are realising the importance of ensuring they are prepared for the enforcement of the Hong Kong regulation. We found that many buyer's and supplier's purchasing departments were not ready for such a radical change, so we felt the need to respond accordingly.”
 

Ms. Angeliki Papathanasiou

Launched in 2016, Procureship has taken procurement to the 'next level' by implementing machine learning and automation to more seamlessly connect buyers and suppliers, and improve the decision-making capabilities of marine purchasing departments. In 2023, Procureship launched its first office in Singapore to ensure it could support its users in the Asia-Pacific region, which currently includes Suntech Ship Management, The Great Eastern Shipping Company and Zeaborn Ship Management.
 

With a userbase of more than 70 fleet managers, representing more than 2,000 vessels, and more than 7,000 suppliers in all major ports and markets around the world, Procureship has added an IHM documentation feature to its system to enable its users to have more control and understanding of their hazardous inventory, bringing modern solutions to old-school problems.
 

“Given the critical role that the collection of Inventory of Hazardous Materials (IHM) documentation plays in the vessel IHM Maintenance procedure, it's essential for our users to comply with the regulations. To this end, we undertook a major internal research project to fully understand IMO regulations and then create an IHM documentation process. We worked closely with industry experts and classification societies to understand how suppliers need to comply.
 

“What we discovered is that as we already had all of the Purchase Order data in our system for every transaction, the best course of action was to add an IHM documentation feature at the order confirmation stage of the transaction on the Procureship platform, enabling buyers to request the documentation and suppliers to easily upload their own forms into the system or utilise our own newly developed forms," she added.
 

Utilising the company's bespoke and built-in automation technology, suppliers are therefore able to submit both Material Declaration (MD) and Suppliers Declaration of Conformity (SDoC) forms during the Purchase Order confirmation stage of a transaction. Completed forms are automatically registered in the buyer's dashboard where they can be reviewed and approved. All approved IHM forms can then automatically be sent to the relevant vessel, which compiles a complete inventory of materials to ensure the vessel is fully compliant.
 

For Procureship, the launch of the feature has already shown its benefits. "Since we launched the feature, our users are preferring to use our in-house IHM forms instead of uploading their own due to its simplicity. Our forms are verified by Bureau Veritas in conjunction with IMO resolution MEPC.379(80), giving our users confidence that all forms are fully compliant," Ms. Papathanasiou added.
 

For owners and operators looking to ensure their vessels are compliant with relevant IHM regulations, amongst a host of other green requirements, digital platforms are ensuing the IHM documentation process is as pain-free as possible and provide the assurance to know any potential risks or liabilities to the ship and its crew are minimised throughout the lifetime of the vessel.

source:  Procureship

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