- NAPA enhances crew safety with the launch of Permit to Work onboard Carnival Cruise Line and Virgin Voyages.
- The new digital Permit to Work system will enable better monitoring and management of hazardous tasks, helping improve crew safety, welfare, and training.
NAPA, a global provider of maritime software and data services, has announced the launch of NAPA Permit to Work to improve crew safety and efficiency when conducting high-risk tasks onboard. The new software is currently being trialed by Carnival Cruise Line and Virgin Voyages, marking a step-change for seafarer safety by removing the risk factor associated with current paper-based processes and handovers.
Better monitoring and management of hazardous tasks
NAPA Permit to Work will digitalize the mandatory work permit process required for conducting hazardous tasks onboard, such as working at height, performing hot work, or entering enclosed spaces. Traditionally, these permits are managed through paper forms as part of a ship operator’s Safety Management System (SMS) and require crews to spend hours going around the ship to collect a multitude of signatures from different departments. The manual nature of this process is prone to delays, errors, and miscommunication, posing safety risks and inefficiencies. Instead, the software will save time for crews by digitalizing those signatures and decrease incident risks by automatically notifying all relevant departments and personnel with real-time status updates of ongoing work, especially riskier tasks like tank cleaning.
NAPA Permit to Work will act as a comprehensive digital checklist to help seafarers ensure that no safety-critical steps are missed. The system is designed so that no digital form is accepted unless all required safety checks are completed before the start of any job, significantly reducing the risk of oversight. Post-COVID, a large proportion of crew working aboard cruise ships are on their first contract with little at-sea experience. This functionality provides a virtual guide and augments previous training, eases handovers and minimizes the margin for error.
For shoreside teams, this data transparency delivers better fleet-wide visibility of ongoing work and conditions, enabling a more proactive approach to safety, maintenance and resolving technical issues. Taking a long-term view, the data collected on the platform can be analyzed to help spot trends at a granular, per vessel and per voyage level. This can be used to evaluate what machinery or systems require maintenance to then swiftly take preventative or remedial action. From a passenger and guest experience perspective, this functionality also contributes to easier and faster maintenance work facilitated by real-time visibility and prioritization of tasks.
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Source: NAPA
