ClassNK has established ClassNK Archive Center (NKAC), the maritime industry’s first onshore digital archive center that fully complies with IMO Goal-based ship construction standards (GBS) and the Industry Standard, which begin to apply from today.
IMO GBS are broad, over-arching safety and environmental standards that ships are required to meet during their operational lifetime. The new SOLAS regulation II-1/3-10 made GBS applicable to bulk carriers and oil tankers of 150m in length and above for which the building contract is placed on or after 1 July 2016.
The new regulation requires that a Ship Construction File (SCF) be provided upon delivery of a new ship and kept on board the ship and/or ashore. The SCF provides ship information related to design and construction that is needed to ensure the safety of the ship throughout its operational lifetime and includes certain documents that are recognized as being highly sensitive intellectual property and permitted to be kept onshore. Hence, an onshore archive center is necessary to securely store these documents, protecting intellectual property rights whilst enabling regulatory compliance.
The Industry Standard (“The SCF Industry Standard (IS) and SCF Supplementary Guidance (SG)”) was developed by a cross-industry group including the Shipbuilders’ Association of Japan (SAJ) and other organizations such as CANSI, CESA, KOSHIPA, SCA, ICS, INTERCARGO, INTERTANKO, BIMCO, OCIMF and IACS. It provides industry guidance relevant to new shipbuildings, substantial repairs, conversions and major modifications to the structure of bulk carriers and oil tankers and was noted at the 96th session of the IMO Maritime Safety Committee (MSC 96) held in May 2016.
By joining forces with tech giant IBM, ClassNK developed NKAC, the industry’s first onshore digital archive center to fully comply with IMO GBS and the Industry Standard. The complete solution offers safe and secure storage of SCF documents, functioning as the third-party keeper of the “SCF Supplement Ashore” in a digital format, while also keeping a full digital copy of the “SCF Onboard” for backup purposes. It can also be used as an information storage and management platform for other ship drawings.
NKAC is certified according to the Information Security Management Systems (ISMS, ISO/IEC 27001:2013) etc. which are prescribed in the Industry Standard. The secured cloud-based system includes an intrusion prevention system, remote data protection and many other advanced security features. As an essential service for both shipowners and shipbuilders, today’s application of IMO GBS is anticipated to spur increased demand.
