# Inspection and maintenance for an offshore vessel fleet

> Inspection and preventive maintenance checklists run on board, with step-by-step audits, a findings center and indicators per vessel.

Source: https://boosting.tech/en/case-studies/vessel-inspection-and-maintenance/
The client is not named. We describe the sector, the problem and what was built.

**Case summary:** An operator of offshore support vessels needed to standardize inspections and preventive maintenance across the fleet. We built a system in which each checklist is a template with sections, tests and steps, run on board from a phone. Findings go to a central view and compliance indicators are available through an API.

- Sector: Offshore support vessels
- Users: Crew, auditors and onshore fleet management
- Platform: Installable web system (PWA) and API
- Technology: Ruby on Rails, Hotwire, PostgreSQL
- Evolving since: 2022

## What the system does

- Checklist templates with sections, tests and steps
- Step-by-step audit execution
- Declining a step with a justification
- Findings center and cumulative items center
- Preventive maintenance with recurrence
- Equipment readings with anomaly detection
- Compliance indicators through an API

## What was the problem?

Each vessel in the fleet kept its checklists in its own spreadsheets. The same test was described differently from one vessel to the next, and the onshore office only saw the result when the spreadsheet arrived by email. Comparing vessels or finding overdue items meant assembling everything by hand.

## What was built?

A system in which the checklist is a single template, maintained by fleet management. Each template has sections, each section has tests and each test has steps stating what to verify and what evidence to record. Templates can be imported and reused across vessels.

Inspections and preventive maintenance become scheduled occurrences created from those templates, with a recurrence set for each one. The system runs as an app installed on the onboard phone or tablet.

## How does it work day to day?

The crew member opens the day's audit and runs it step by step. When a step cannot be done, they decline it and record the reason, and the item goes to the findings center. Equipment readings, such as pressure and temperature, are entered in the same flow, and the system calculates the historical median to flag values outside the pattern.

Onshore, management follows three screens: the auditor center, the findings center and the cumulative items center. Preventive maintenance compliance indicators go out through an API to the client's corporate dashboard.

## What changed in the operation?

The whole fleet now follows the same inspection template, and comparing vessels is no longer manual work. A finding opened on board shows up onshore as soon as the device has a connection. Readings outside the pattern are now flagged by the system.

Projects like this combine a [custom web system](/en/services/custom-web-systems/) with heavy phone use, which we cover in [apps](/en/services/mobile-apps/). For another marine operation, see the [passenger transport](/en/case-studies/offshore-passenger-transport/) case.

## Frequently asked questions about vessel inspection systems

### Can the checklist change without touching the system?

Yes. Templates are edited by fleet management. A change to a template applies to the next occurrences and does not alter the history of audits already run.

### What about when the vessel has no connection?

The app is installed on the device and stores the interface locally. Each project's design defines what has to work without signal and how data syncs when the connection returns.

### Can the indicators go to the company's BI?

Yes. The system exposes the data through an API, and the corporate dashboard consumes what it needs.