Throughout the years, the company has made increasing investments in their service offer to customers – both nationally and internationally. Now, the company wants to showcase their competence and experience with SEAM’s own products, together with general automation and electro service for ships, as well as taking a swing at solving one of the industry’s biggest challenges; quick access to spare parts.
– I believe SEAM has one of the most competent environments in its’ industry in Norway, and one of the district’s most exciting workplaces with a very promising future.
Ferkingstad, who has decades of experience from Aibel, Appex, Westcon Power & Automation and AKVA Marine Services, has been hired to further develop the SEAM’s Service Department. The company is looking to cover more ground and solve critical challenges to both national and international customers. The newly appointed CSO is looking forward to joining the company on their journey.
– The reason why I wanted to join SEAM was a combination of the company’s clear ambition to actively partake in the green shift, and the opportunity to contribute to the strengthening of the Service Department.
With a background in IT, Industry and Management, combined with an electro-engineering degree, he is ready to join the company in consolidating its’ role as a contributor to the Norwegian maritime sector’s zero emission goals. He thinks SEAM’s future looks bright.
– I am first and foremost very excited to work with so many extremely capable colleagues, in contributing to the industry’s transition towards zero-emission operations. I also find great motivation in knowing I will have the opportunity to establish an ‘upgraded’ Service concept for SEAM. I believe SEAM has one of the most competent environments in its’ industry in Norway, and one of the district’s most exciting workplaces with a very promising future.
Gunvald Mortvedt, Chief Executive Officer for SEAM, says service is an important aspect of the business, which he wants to clarify even further to their customers.
– We want to invest even more in our service offer to our customers and continue to build on the great work we’ve already done. Karl Johan will be a very important resource in our work to become an even stronger partner for our customers, throughout the service life of their vessels.
– Our customers should trust that we will be there for them, on time, at the right place, over and over again.
Ferkingstad believes it’s important to highlight the company’s knowledge and experience with products from other suppliers, as well as those developed by SEAM.
– It’s very important for us to communicate clearly to the industry that we also deliver services to customers who don’t have SEAM products on board their ships. We have excellent knowledge and experience with most types of the electro/automation solutions out there, and we have daily assignments on vessels both at home and abroad.
Proper follow-up is essential to the ship’s service life, according to Ferkingstad. Challenging situations may occur, in which SEAM’s employees are ready to help, and have a genuine wish to do so. This may mean increased service life and decreased downtime, he says.
– Continuous maintenance through service agreements, combined with agreements on critical spare parts, will help to increase the service life of the ship as well as decreasing its’ downtime. In order to become truly competitive in today’s market we have to do more than just deliver great products. We also have to make sure that the we follow up with our customers after the delivery and throughout the product’s service life. Our customers should trust that we will be there for them, on time, at the right place, over and over again.
Not only for traditional products, the green shift also represent new challenges and possibilities in terms of customer service needs, says Ferkingstad. Luckily SEAM already has this knowledge in place – and they want to share.
– The green shift affects our customers’ service needs in a good way, seeing as ‘green’ products often require less maintenance than traditional solutions. However, there is a bigger demand for specialized personnel to carry out maintenance on these products. That’s where we come in. In some cases, customers want their own technical personnel to complete the maintenance themselves. So, when the customer requests it, we provide training to the customers technical staff.
Another big challenge for shipowners and suppliers today is access to spare parts. A large increase in delivery times for these parts has made it challenging to provide quick relief to customers when a problem occurs. A situation that very well may cost the customer dearly. Right off the bat SEAM and Ferkingstad may have come up with a possible solution already.
– The solution here will be ensuring that we always have access to critical spare parts for our customers. Through dialogue with the customer we will map out which parts we need to have access to, which we will then add to our stock and provide to them through a “Spare Part” agreement.
SEAM also has ambitions to strengthen their service offer in the international market.
– We deliver a lot of service outside of Norway already, but with the growth that we are planning in the international market there will be a need for more resources. We are working on different models with regards to how this can be solved practically, and we expect a clarification on this during the second quarter of 2022.
– All potential candidates are encouraged to get in touch for a chat!
The keyword here being ‘resources’, because pretty soon there will be a big demand for even more competent personnel in SEAM’s Service Department.
– We will absolutely be needing a bigger service team soon. It could be roles such as Electrician/Automatician or Technician/Engineer within the Electronic, Automation and Commissioning fields. All potential candidates are encouraged to get in touch for a chat!
