Jon Ingleton talks to Lars Ljoen about the services Carnival Maritime provides to AIDA and Costa
By
Jon Ingleton |
This article was first published in the Autumn/Winter 2016 issue of International Cruise & Ferry Review. All information was correct at the time of printing, but may since have changed.
Congratulations on your appointment. What are your priorities for the fleet in your first year in your new role?
I’ll build on the fantastic work of my predecessor Jens Lassen. The constant observation of our ships allows us to foresee any potential issues regarding weather, the political situation at our destinations, or harbour-related changes and provide real-time support to our captains at sea.
My primary focus is to foster regular communication between ship and shore, as well as strengthening collaboration and cross-sectional coordination between Carnival Maritime and the brands. This will continuously enhance the safety onboard our ships and will be supported by some changes in the organisational structure and a couple of new hires. Moreover, my priorities lie on ‘green cruising’. We have an innovation and projects team that focuses solely on these topics. By monitoring and adjusting all technical and nautical processes aboard our ships, we can reduce energy usage or waste management to operate our ships more efficiently.
Can you outline the different services Carnival Maritime provides?
Carnival Maritime comprises the Fleet Operations Center (FOC) and seven complementary departments, employing 150 maritime specialists. Fourteen officers with professional experience run the FOC in shift operations, monitoring the location, nautical and technical condition of our fleet on numerous displays, similar to a tower at airports. They can call in experts from further departments if necessary.
The Nautical Operations department monitors, coordinates and supports safe and professional navigation operations and the itinerary planning process. Our Fleet Cruise Execution team focuses on the technical management of our fleet, connecting our office and our ships across the globe in terms of maintenance and repair efficiency, standardisation and harmonised processes. Meanwhile, our security department establishes and maintains security standards and risk assessment, and our Fleet Governance department implements fleet governance processes and monitors policy compliance. Human resources projects and training – for the nautical and technical crew onboard the ships are managed by the Marine HR team, while the Asset Management division manages fleet-wide technical and environmental solutions and yard projects by leveraging relationships and expertise at the Costa Group. Finally, our Continuous Improvement department monitors our internal performance to make adjustments if necessary.
What significant challenges do you anticipate facing in the early years of your leadership?
The cruise industry is constantly growing and we foresee further growth in the years to come. The Costa Group announced various newbuilds, which means that we will have more ships to monitor, support and coordinate. It also means more traffic in the ports and on the seas. We are already reacting to developments that we foresee in the coming years. For instance, we cooperate closely with the harbours, like Hamburg, wherever possible, and constantly invest in making further enhancements in our FOC.
We are constantly working behind the scenes to help the brands enhance their product experience by improving processes, efficiency and standards in the nautical and technical departments onboard the ships. One of the major topics of the future will be continuous synopsis record, especially energy efficiency and environmental protection, as this is highly relevant to guests.
How do you balance the different priorities of the important stakeholders in your operations?Carnival Maritime is a service unit for our brands – by doing our job right, we contribute to balancing the needs of all their different stakeholders. We help make cruises even safer and more sustainable, which ultimately makes it more relaxing and fun for passengers. We provide our employees with training and other development skills to advance their capabilities and show them that they are valued. Designing technical and nautical processes more efficiently also plays to the priorities of our stakeholders.
Each cruise line draws different lines between the freedom given to ship captains to run their ship and the control and monitoring requirements from headquarters.
Where do you draw that line and why?
For Carnival Maritime, the captain is the managing director onboard the ship, so we aim to empower our captains to be true leaders and take charge of their vessels. This applies mainly to five big areas: first, the safe and efficient operation of the ship, including all nautical and technical issues; second, the business function, which includes being aware of provisions onboard or other operational expenses; third, the crew management; fourth, all governmental and compliance duties; and fifth, the hotel operation. Our onshore team supports the captains by simplifying processes and procedures so that they can take care of what’s really important: the guests, the crew and their ship.
In what way does Carnival Maritime measure performance?
Our focus is very much on being sustainable, more efficient and safer, as well as working smarter. This includes among a lot of other things, fuel savings, fresh water production, the use of excess heat, retrofits, using and implementing better systems and new technologies. All of our internal key performance indicators are aligned with these goals.
How does Carnival Maritime fit into, and collaborate with, other teams in the corporate structure?
Carnival Maritime is a separate unit acting as a support entity to all three brands. Accordingly, we have tight communication processes and our departments are in daily contact with colleagues from different departments of the three brands. As quality, efficiency, maintaining standards, and safety and security are integral parts of the brand promises, we contribute literally every second. We are focusing on connecting our brands and ships across the globe.
What other factors are, or will, significantly impact the role that you fulfil for Carnival Corporation?
The cruise industry currently perceives major growth – the Cruise Lines International Association reported a total of 23.2 million passengers on ocean cruises in 2015. For 2016, the association estimates 24.2 million travellers on cruises. The growth of our industry will also require our operations to adjust to this new dimension and possibly expand our services. At the same time, we want to establish excellent safety standards in our industry and make cruising more sustainable. AIDA and Costa will bring the first cruise ships running on LNG to the market and we have numerous approaches to optimising our processes in terms of energy, waste and fuel consumption.