GL starts electronic data exchange with the maritime industry

Germanischer Lloyd (GL) is introducing a system of electronic data exchange with shipyards, engine manufacturers and other suppliers in order to accelerate the plan approval of ships and their equipment. The international classification society is testing the new communication procedures in a pilot project with notable clients from Asia and Europe.

In view of an orderbook which now totals 800 ships being built to GL class and steadily decreasing ship production times at the yards, rapid plan approval is becoming increasingly important. For each newbuilding, the experts at GL have to check up to 350 documents. Until now, these documents have had to be sent back and forth by post between the shipyard or equipment suppliers and GL headquarters in Hamburg. Such procedures were creating a major bottleneck, so the society has turned to electronic data exchange to speed the transmission process. Now, with the exchange of approved ship drawings via the Internet under this new approach, it is possible to keep all participants fully updated as regards the current status of the plan approval process.

The new service consists of a special Internet portal, the ?GL eRoom?. The drawings of the ships, engines and components to be approved are exchanged in the PDF format between the yard or manufacturer and Germanischer Lloyd. The ?GL eRoom? can be reached through a standard browser without the need for any additional software. The security of the digital interchange is safeguarded by the SSL method.

With this new electronic data exchange system, the approval procedures are accelerated and the administrative costs are reduced, both for the customers and GL Thanks to the new approach, it is no longer necessary to photocopy drawings, transmit corrections or send entire drawings by snail mail.