A total lifetime commitment

Wärtsilä is a manufacturing oriented company. This year, however, the supplier of ship power solutions is retraining its sights more on customer service. “The most important things in this business are the customer, the solution and total lifetime support. These are the three cornerstones of our business, which is a message we now emphasise to our own people as much as our customers,” explains Mikael Mäkinen.

He says that while the technical expertise at Wärtsilä is beyond question, an absolute understanding of the customer?s requirement in the broader sense is increasingly important, particularly now that the company offers more extensive power and propulsion solutions.

The renewed focus on the customer does not imply that the existing level of service or current service agreements that cover all aspects of lifecycle optimization are in anyway inadequate. It will, however, “step up” this aspect of Wärtsilä?s business and help provide the company an extra competitive edge in coming years. Achieving this will mean placing more responsibility on project managers. “With more customer relationship managers,” says Mäkinen, “customers will actually see the face of someone who can take full responsibility for all their needs.”

One important aspect of customer service is training and earlier this year Wärtsilä signed a co-operation agreement with a maritime training academy in Turku, Finland to provide a ?one-stop shop? for certified maritime training for all aspects of ship operation and engineering.

According to Mäkinen two key factors are responsible for current training needs. “First, there is the rapid development of technology, in particular more electronic control,” he explains, “then you have the worldwide tendency of “cost-conscious” ship owners to generally use less well trained crews,” he explains. “In response, we already have our engines in training schools in places such as the Philippines and China and now, following requests from ship owners, we also train crews.”

Mäkinen says that, apart from the cost being generally a fraction of the cost of employing highly skilled people in the first place, many ship owners are quick to recognize the importance of training in the smooth running of their vessels and overall programmes have been well received. “Although we are never going to make much money on training,” he admits, “the goodwill and value to the customer makes it well worthwhile.”

He goes on to explain that a well-trained crew can also help steer clear of unnecessary conflict in the event of breakdown. “When we sell an engine we state that the time between overhauls for certain parts may be, say, 20,000 hours. But after only maybe 8,000 hours a ship owner could possibly come back to us claiming that a part is not operating anymore and this could well be because of the lack of basic knowledge of how to maintain and operate the equipment rather than the equipment itself.” With a proper understanding of maintenance procedure and service intervals this is avoided. The success of the current training courses has led to further requests to provide training for related and other engine room equipment.

Other than the decline in the average levels of skills on board and in shipyards, which Mäkinen says is down to the gravitation of shipbuilding and shipping to low-cost areas with equally lower levels of training and education, the emergence of new technologies has also had an impact on training needs. However, understanding and being able to effectively maintain and operate new engine and propulsion systems is imperative as the arrival of even more advanced solutions to the demand for more efficient technology is assured.

As with many other providers of engine technology, the development of more environmentally friendly solutions is currently the main focus for Wärtsilä. The 50DF dual-fuel engine, for example, which can run on either natural gas or marine diesel fuel (and even HFO with a few modifications), offers many benefits to LNG operators in terms of lower fuel consumption and emissions in addition to larger cargo carrying capacity and higher flexibility on operation.

“Dual fuel is a particularly significant technology in meeting future environmental and emissions regulation,” says Mäkinen. “Getting the industry to adopt such technology, on the other hand, does require a certain amount of education.”

He says that Wärtsilä?s Senior Vice President, Technology, Daniel Paro has been largely instrumental in this respect having travelled far and wide championing dual fuel technology. “Also, it was important that we find a good reference for the industry,” adds Mäkinen. ?So first we had an offshore supply vessel with the dual fuel engine and now gas carriers. The gas carriers, in particular, show the market that dual fuel is not just talk but something that is really working and is the future.” He says he believes that, in the near future, we will see a lot more dual fuel ships and not just LNG carriers. “Cargo ships will be the next step for dual fuel engines and there are even plans for passenger vessels? though it won?t be easy to convince these ship owners to have a ship with a huge gas tank.”

Other environmentally friendly and efficiency oriented technologies Wärtsilä is focused on include common-rail fuel injection, Direct Water Injection (DWI) and Compact Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR). Rather than just developing such technologies, however, Mäkinen says it is also important to be part of the regulatory process that determine its application. “You have to ensure that the regulations made are achievable,” he says, “so regulators need to know what is and isn?t possible with the technology we have now and are likely to have in the next, say, ten years.”

And what does Mikael Mäkinen have to say about Wärtsilä maintaining its market position over the next few decades? “I believe that we are currently at the highest level in terms of concentrating on ship power ? and this means as far as new equipment, aftersales, service, the whole lifetime or lifecycle and the marine industry?s requirement generally goes. We are already the leaders in many applications in the marine industry and ship power is the main growth area of the business.”

He says that further development of the company and its business will be based on both organic growth and future acquisitions. “Though the marine diesel engine market is already fairly well consolidated and has a number of ?big players? that are never likely to merge, these may well end up swallowing up the smaller regional or niche players to increase their market share,” foretells Mäkinen. “Because of the huge amount of money required today for the development of new technology, some of the smaller players may not be able to keep up.”

Importantly he adds that Wärtsilä?s future growth will also be based on the development of new solutions, total packages, additional equipment and a lot more focus on the already successful propulsor side of the business. While I can?t say that we have our sights set on any particular acquisition or alliance right now,” he concludes, ” I can tell you that we are also currently looking at other types of engine related equipment.”