UniSea has streamlined the tendering process for dry-docking projects with the launch of its Maindeck price quotation portal that is now being used by over 70 shipyards worldwide, resulting in significant time and cost savings for shipowners by optimizing yard evaluation and selection.

“Gaining an accurate picture of dry-docking pricing during the tendering phase and minimizing these costs through a precise yard evaluation process is vital given that expenses associated with technical projects can account for 80-90% of a vessel’s lifecycle maintenance costs,” says UniSea CEO Kurt Roar Vilhelmsen.

“But traditional tendering methods are prone to uncertainty and inaccuracies that can lead to unexpected – and costly – surprises when the final bill is received. The Maindeck quotation portal greatly simplifies the process by automating tendering tasks, providing accuracy and predictability to ensure better costs control with dry-docking projects and minimize the risk of cost overruns.”

Among an increasing number of yards using the quotation portal are BLRT Repair Yards’ Western Shiprepair facility in Klaipeda, Lithuania, whose Head of Key Accounts Gabrielus Jasas says: “We were impressed by the quotation portal from UniSea Maindeck. We have seen many different portals over the years, but this is the first one we’ve been able to effectively use. When we receive requests for quotations via Maindeck, we’re happy to respond through the platform.”

Tendering challenges

Tendering for a dry-docking requires competing yards being screened for the project to provide price quotations based on multiple work orders/jobs to be undertaken, or the scope of work, which can then be evaluated by the technical ship manager running the project.

But this is typically a laborious process resulting in vast and complicated quotations, often submitted by yards in different formats. There is also a lack of flexibility for yards to enter prices according to their differentiated operation and costing structures, as fixed forms are necessary to make comparisons between different yards.

Consequently, quotations may be missing price details necessary for proper evaluation and must also be manually inputted by the client into a comparison matrix, which is both time-consuming and runs the risk of errors that can lead to pricing inaccuracies.

Furthermore, requesting price revisions from different yards is a torturous exercise resulting in long email threads for each yard with revised prices hidden in different replies at different times, which must also be inputted manually to update the comparison matrix.

Simplifying yard evaluation

Norwegian maritime software developer UniSea consulted extensively with yards to understand their needs prior to developing the quotation portal that has now been incorporated into its Maindeck solution for efficient planning, tendering and execution of complex dry-docking projects.

“It is all about having a well-specified project scope, and a process with structural flexibility that allows you to handle the many different quotations and easily compare them to be able to select the best candidate,” says UniSea Product Owner Sasan Mameghani.

Maindeck is a cloud-based software that provides a single source of truth through a unified platform for all stakeholders involved in a dry-docking project, thereby eliminating potential anomalies arising from disparate streams of information. A mobile app with full offline capabilities enables multiple users to update the project on the go from anywhere in real time, while a powerful reporting module allows the technical manager’s superintendent to generate highly customized reports at the click of a button.

Yards are able to submit price quotes directly through Maindeck’s standardized quotation portal with flexibility to include additional prices based on their specific requirements. The portal automatically generates a comparison matrix with all yards involved in the tendering process that is instantly accessible to the superintendent.

The comparison matrix is automatically populated with any price revisions by yards submitted via the portal, which can also apply automatic estimates for missing quotes.

Time and money savings

The portal is being used extensively by several major shipping companies including Scandlines, whose Nautical Superintendent Pit Lorenz says: “We’ve successfully utilized UniSea Maindeck’s yard quotation portal across multiple projects, with the shipyards included in our tendering process actively using the platform.

“Having all yard pricing centralized on Maindeck ensures that no quotes are lost in email chains or scattered across different files, so we maintain visibility and control over all quotations at all times. This creates a single, streamlined collaboration space with the shipyards that reduces the risk of confusion,” Lorenz adds.

Totally eliminating the need for manual inputting of prices into the comparison matrix saves time and avoids needless errors. This frees up capacity for the superintendent to focus solely on precisely evaluating quotes from competing yards, which can also result in cost savings. An automatic yard comparison report can then be generated for management.

According to Vilhelmsen, increasing usage by yards of the Maindeck quotation portal demonstrates the viability of the UniSea solution compared with similar tools that have been tried in the past.

Vilhelmsen concludes: “With clear efficiency and cost benefits for the shipowner, the use of the Maindeck quotation portal is quickly becoming a competitive differentiator in dry-docking tendering processes.”