By
Alex Smith |
Shipbuilding projects are hugely complicated undertakings, and thousands of moving parts must be tracked carefully during construction. This complexity is only increasing, as new ships get bigger and fit-out supply chains become increasingly fragmented. Frequently, this leaves cruise lines without a clear record of what has been installed on their vessels or who supplied it, both during the construction process and long after the project is complete.
As a result, the line may be forced to constantly chase information about the status and location of products during the construction project. Later in the vessel’s life, when purchasing departments are tasked with sourcing replacement items or matching existing furniture for a refit, they will find there is no reliable point of reference and likely resort to speculatively calling suppliers in the hope someone can identify what was originally installed. This inefficiency costs time and money, and it’s an issue marine interior furniture specialist Robos decided to address.
Robos has been supplying and installing furniture for cruise lines for almost three decades, working across newbuild and refit projects for operators including Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean International. This long-term involvement in the industry provided the company with clear insight into the issues cruise lines face, explains Sascha Bosch, owner of Robos.
“From the moment a cruise brand gets the keys from a shipyard, they often have no clue who supplied which items onboard,” says Bosch. “They sometimes have no knowledge whatsoever of which fabrics are on the vessel, who made the table or who built the banquette seating. We thought it would be much more efficient to give them this inside information, so we started to build Robos Connect.”
There is a vast volume and variety of data involved in a single newbuild or dry dock project, and making that information legible to a client in real time, while also ensuring it remains accurate as the project evolves, is challenging. Consequently, Robos’s solution required extensive development. The result, after nearly five years of work and significant investment, is Robos Connect. The customer portal provides clients with real-time access to information on what goods have been ordered for their project, the status of those items, their specifications and their 3D drawings and production pictures. Each client can see the details of all their current projects, cutting out the confusion.
“The platform provides our clients with live delivery times and statuses,” says Bosch. “Has the fabric been ordered? Has it been produced? Is it on the ship yet? Will it be delayed? How does it look onboard after installation? They don’t have to chase down the details to answer those questions; the portal will provide this information for them, completely transparently.”
The Robos Connect portal provides clients with real-time access to information relating to goods ordered for their projects, including delivery status, specifications and 3D drawings
Beyond its immediate operational benefits, the portal is designed to serve as a long-term resource for cruise lines and their design teams. A new team member may have no information about the products ordered for a ship built well before they started working in the cruise industry. Using the Robos Connect portal, they can now access information for all the projects Robos has completed for that line in the past.
“If you’re 26, new to the industry, and you have to help buy furniture for a ship that’s over a decade old, there’s no information available to you about what was previously ordered,” says Bosch. “But we have the specifications, the drawings, the pictures, everything. The portal allows you to access that information much more easily.”
Despite the significant time and money invested by Robos into the development of Robos Connect, it will make the portal available to all its clients as part of its standard service.
“We want to give our clients added value when working with us,” says Bosch. “The portal won’t cost them anything extra to access. It comes from our desire to provide a deep service and relationship with our customers and help cruise lines to find the furniture they’re looking for.”
For Bosch, the launch of the portal represents Robos’s commitment to innovating for its clients. Further development is planned to extend the functionality of the portal, as Robos aims to give cruise lines a deeper view of the furniture onboard their vessels.
“We’ve introduced the portal to some of our clients already and the feedback we received was that it’s a gamechanger,” he says. “It’s quite a simple solution, but nobody has it yet. So that’s what we want to deliver.”
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