Wartsila wins five-year cruise ship maintenance contract

Agreement includes Wärtsilä's new Virtual Service Engineer (VSE) concept, which involves technical advisory service supported by a remote visual connection and augmented reality technology

NOVEMBER 9, 2016 — Ship management company V.Ships has chosen Wärtsilä to provide maintenance services for its long term client Phoenix Reisen’s cruise vessel M/S Artania.

The five-year maintenance agreement covers the scheduled maintenance activities for M/S Artania’s four Wärtsilä 32 main engines and one Wärtsilä 32 auxiliary engine as well as spare parts for them. Wärtsilä will also monitor the condition of the engines in real time and provide remote online support. Maintenance planning is supported with constant monitoring of the condition of the engines through Wärtsilä condition based maintenance service (CBM) which helps determine service needs and avoid unexpected interruptions.

The agreement also includes Wärtsilä’s new Virtual Service Engineer (VSE) concept, which involves technical advisory service supported by a remote visual connection and augmented reality technology. The innovative concept has already been piloted and has now been taken into use following the good feedback from the pilot.

The Virtual Service Engineering concept is part of the Wärtsilä Genius services portfolio utilizing benefits of real-time data and data analytics.

“Our positive experiences from earlier cooperation with Wärtsilä convinced us to extend our partnership to include maintenance services for Artania. The predictability of maintenance costs helps us optimise our operations while the support of dedicated Wärtsilä service engineers provides increased reliability,” says Andrea Spensieri, Fleet Manager, V.Ships Leisure.

The agreement expands the existing cooperation between Wärtsilä and V.Ships, which began in 2007 and currently includes services for two cruise vessels, Mv Albatros and Mv Silver Spirit, for both of which Wärtsilä has a five-year maintenance agreement.

“We are very happy to further develop our successful partnership with V.Ships. We provide the service expertise to ensure that M/S Artania’s passengers can enjoy their cruise to the fullest, while ensuring that the vessel’s operations below the passenger decks run smoothly and efficiently at all times,” Patrick Borstner, Director, Services Unit Italy, Wärtsilä Italia says.