![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.hamburgcruisedays.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/safety-first-Michael_Salzmann.jpg\")
Michael Salzmann was an officer on container ships and cruise liners before joining the Fleet Operations Center. <\/em><\/p><\/div>\n The Fleet Operations Center (FOC) is the technical heart of Carnival Maritime\u2019s Hamburg facility. When Michael Salzmann, the Senior Superintendent Fleet Operations and the man in charge of this center, shows visitors around \u201chis\u201d facility, he\u2019s obviously in his element and filled with pride. Salzmann, a former sailor who served as first officer on container ships before switching to the cruise industry, explains the center\u2019s purpose: \u201cFrom here, we keep a close eye on the 38 ships of the Carnival Group, which are Costa, Costa Asia and AIDA, as well as the ships of the British lines Cunard and P&O Cruises,\u201d he says. The screens also display the movements of all Carnival ships worldwide, which are monitored meticulously at the Group\u2019s three Fleet Operations Centers: in Hamburg, in Seattle and in Miami.<\/p>\n \u201cOur duties cover three strategic areas. The first is safety: where are our ships and what route will they be taking?\u201d Ships are tracked using standard corridors between the ports. \u201cIf any one of our ships leaves this corridor it automatically triggers a signal here at the center. Usually, the reason for leaving the corridor is to maintain the safe distance to another ship. However, it could also be an emergency med- ical evacuation. In this case, the ship has to get to a prearranged meeting point to rendezvous with a helicopter or an emergency vessel,\u201d says Salzmann. \u201cWhatever happens, we\u2019re always here, watching it digitally.\u201d<\/p>\n Crisis management is another task \u2013 or \u201coperational problem handling and escalation,\u201d as Salzmann describes it. \u201cIn a nutshell, most incidents are weather-related. For instance, if we see strong winds approaching a particular port our task is to decide whether we should let the passenger change-over go ahead as planned; does it make sense to enter the port earlier and get the three to four thousand passengers on board before this bad weather system hits the ship? Do we need to direct the ship to a different port, and then provide transfer shuttles or even flights for our guests?\u201d Questions like these get Carnival\u2019s well-oiled machinery ticking over. The solution is discussed with all relevant departments, a collaborative piece of decision-making that demands sophisticated logistical planning. \u201cJust like in aviation, we can\u2019t afford to arrive late. It\u2019s not just about the berth times in the port, but also about our guests missing out on their holiday enjoyment,\u201d says Michael Salzmann. Additionally, the ships aren\u2019t just taking on passengers, they also need to load food supplies. \u201cRoughly 260 containers have to be planned and unloaded punctually every week.\u201d<\/p>\n Salzmann\u2019s team is also responsible for providing nautical support for Costa and AIDA: \u201cCosta is currently busy planning the 2019 catalogue; amongst other things our job is to check whether the routes make nautical sense and whether the times are feasible.\u201d The navigators also plan well ahead into the future: \u201cWith ships getting larger and larger, we need to calculate whether a particular port will still be accessible in five years\u2019 time. To be on the safe side, we can also test this in the simulation center.\u201d<\/p>\n All of these monitoring and control processes rely\u2028 to a crucial extent on digital technologies. Michael Salzmann is proud of the \u201cpowerful engine\u201d in the Fleet Operations Center: \u201cWe invested substantially in technology, which was an essential measure; each ship is fitted with between 16,000 and 20,000 data points, of which 450 are transmitted to us in real-time 24 hours a day; multiply that by 38 ships and you get an idea of the data volume we\u2019re handling.\u201d Some of the software and technologies were developed in-house. A large volume of data is transmitted from the ship\u2019s black box, the Voyage Data Recorder (VDR), which Carnival Maritime had expanded according to the company\u2019s specifications. \u201cWe contacted the manufacturer and are proud to have done some pioneering work for the industry.\u201d The new VDR is installed on all Costa and AIDA ships, and generates data that are saved, accessed in the cloud, and analysed as required.<\/p>\n Recently, the German Shipowners\u2019 Association visited Carnival Maritime and was very impressed by the Fleet Operations Center. Salzmann is delighted: \u201cWe engage in active communication across our industry. Everyone is interested in more safety and service, and everyone hopes to monitor, track and improve the efficiency of ships with best practices. We can learn from each other. There\u2019s no rivalry when it comes to safety.\u201d<\/p>\n Photos: dpa\/Carnival Maritime<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”3er Block mit Bildern” specialty=”off” prev_background_color=”#000000″ _builder_version=”3.10.1″ module_class=”beitragscontent-unter-hauptbild zwei-bilder” next_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.10.1″ src=”https:\/\/www.hamburgcruisedays.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/safety-first3-1.jpg” \/][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.10.1″ custom_css_main_element=”margin-top:-10px;”]<\/p>\n A vast quantity of data is collected at the Fleet Operations Center, allowing the team to monitor operations. <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.10.1″ border_color_all=”#012e67″ module_class=”kasten-rot” saved_tabs=”all”]<\/p>\n The Carnival Maritime Fleet Operations Center operates seven days a week, 24 hours a day. The shift plan is unusual: four day shifts from 8 am through 8 pm and then four days off, then three night shifts and another four days off. The staff specifically\u00a0 requested the 12-hour shifts and this particular rhythm. \u201cThe \u2018crew\u2019 comes from\u00a0 Germany, Poland, Italy and England,\u201d says Michael Salzmann, who heads the center.<\/p>\n The FOC Hamburg employs 15 experienced mariners, including three women; the required qualifications are nautical training and at least three years\u2019 active service at sea \u2013 ideally on a cruise ship.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” prev_background_color=”#000000″ _builder_version=”3.10.1″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.10.1″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Carnival Corporation, the world\u2019s biggest cruise company, monitors its fleet around the clock from a number of locations, including Hamburg. We visited the Fleet Operations Center in HafenCity. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_custom_body_class":"","_custom_post_class":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[119],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shore-leave"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hamburgcruisedays.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hamburgcruisedays.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hamburgcruisedays.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hamburgcruisedays.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hamburgcruisedays.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3415"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.hamburgcruisedays.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3418,"href":"https:\/\/www.hamburgcruisedays.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3415\/revisions\/3418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hamburgcruisedays.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hamburgcruisedays.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hamburgcruisedays.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hamburgcruisedays.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Safety first – 24\/7<\/h4>\n