Page 66 - ΝΑΥΤΙΚΑ ΧΡΟΝΙΚΑ - ΣΕΠΤΕΜΒΡΙΟΣ 2022

SHIPYARD INDUSTRY / OPINIONS

THE HUMAN FACTOR

IS HIGHLY VALUED

IN SHIPYARDS

How do you approach the human factor issue? Do you have any initiatives
underway to attract, train and retain employees at your facility? Are you con-
cerned about the labour shortages in many shipyards around the world?
It is well known that shipyards are labour-intensive businesses heavily depen-
dent on the built-in expertise of highly skilled management personnel and
low-cost manpower. So, shipyards highly value the human factor - their unique
combination of talented, skilled personnel and non-experienced workers.
This highly skilled personnel - mostly well-trained locals dedicated to the
field - is usually involved in the shipping business for many years. Fortunately,
there is no shortage of such personnel.
On the other hand, shipyards experience severe shortages in unskilled per-
sonnel. In most developed countries, unskilled workers must be sourced
abroad to be cost effective. The demand for such workers fluctuates, so to
find them, shipyards need to be flexible. For this reason, they have been
developing special training courses to provide their workers with the basic
skills required in the shipyard industry, such as welding, staging, crane lifting,
and assembling, while at the same time preparing them for a highly unsafe
work environment.
During the pandemic, we noticed that these workers returned to their coun-
tries due to the prevailing circumstances. As such, there was a growing
shortage of workers worldwide, which in most countries still has a long way
to go before it is overcome.

How are environmental regulations impacting your business?
There is a growing trend in shipyards worldwide towards adopting envi-
ronmentally-friendlier procedures and methods regarding the disposal of
used/hazardous materials and ship repair techniques.
We have seen that most ship-repair facilities show a strong interest in
some of the following:
• Used paint cans disposal
• Removal / Disposal of asbestos material, used in the past onboard
ships mainly for insulation purposes
by Vassilis Vassiliou, • A complete transformation through grind-blasting, hydro-blasting,
INTERYARDS S.A. or slurry-blasting methods (slurry blasting: the use of grind-blasting
combined with a water jet). By using these methods, yards control or
eliminate the grinding dust.
Α complete grind-blasting treatment cycle is relatively expensive when all

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