Professional Operating Procedures
Time and time again we’re contacted by captains and heads of department who have joined a yacht that doesn’t have operational or safety procedures in place. Sometimes their predecessors took everything and deleted all onboard records. Other times there simply were none to begin with. Crew accustomed to professional operations understand that they are invaluable to good organisation. But even inexperienced HODs on smaller yachts know that quality procedures will help them keep the yacht and their team better organised and greatly reduce everyone’s stress.
Our team here at Superyacht Operating Systems are kind of obsessed with SOPs! So much so that the initial concept of our management software (Totalsuperyacht.com) was to provide a platform to digitise compliance and SOPs. That theme has remained strong in the seven years since it was launched. Our two biggest points of difference from our competitors are that we’re renowned for the vast content of SOPs and manuals built into our system, and we fully digitise workflow.
Set up Professional Procedures in Record Time
What does that mean in reality? Depending on the client’s needs, we either prepopulate the client’s system with a bundle of useful procedures, or clients can browse through the Luxe digital library and add individual SOPs to their system with a few clicks. Once added to their bespoke system, they can further personalise the procedure with yacht/owner specifics or simply publish it to be immediately available on the Total Superyacht App.
Our clients can literally go from having nothing to having a highly professional system — including checklists for guest preparation and service, daily, weekly & monthly maintenance checklists, and a full suite of safety and operational procedures — within a few days. Over time, crew can personalise individual checklists and procedures to include greater yacht-specific detail and add supporting images (excellent for correct setup).
The benefit of this system is that it’s yacht-specific, and it’s not possible for disgruntled crew to delete it or take it with them. When published content is edited, it creates a new copy. Once approved, it overwrites the old copy, creating automatic version control. The captain can set permissions that require his authorisation to publish new content (via a few short clicks).
Our safety/compliance modules include built-in content by way of design, such as Permits to Work, Drill Reports, Medical Reports, Safety Meetings, Accident & Incident Reports, Non-Conformity Reports, Declarations of Security, etc. Another benefit of this system is that you can change management companies without losing your crew-created, vessel-specific safety procedures. A new management company can upload its safety management manual into Total Superyacht and take over the publishing of future safety items. This removes that feeling of being stuck with a management company you’re not satisfied with because it’s too much work to switch. Total Superyacht gives you the flexibility to continue operating with existing procedures while taking on new management.
Crew changes are also less stressful because incoming crew can jump right in and start working with the existing system, which acts as a form of training because of the detail it affords. Junior crew feel empowered because they have access to detailed instructions, and heads of department don’t need to devote nearly as much time to training new hires. This is especially helpful when you’re hiring HODs with minimal management experience. As much as we’d like to think otherwise, it’s not really fair to expect newly-appointed heads of department to be nearly as knowledgeable as we need them to be when supervising ultra luxury surroundings and serving the world’s wealthiest clientele.
Why start from scratch when you can start from expert?
For more details visit www.totalsuperyacht.com
