Damage and Repair Workflow
Introduction
Damage takes the same road through the system regardless of where it came from: somebody reports it, somebody decides what happens with it, it is repaired, the parts used are booked out of stock, and the record closes. This document follows that road once.
Two kinds of damage travel it, and they differ only at the start and at the end:
- A ship defect is a technical fault on the vessel's own equipment.
- A stevedore damage is caused by a third party during cargo operations — which is why it ends with a claim rather than simply with a repair.
Where a step uses a function that works the same everywhere, it is linked rather than explained again.
Reporting
A ship defect is reported on board, either from the maintenance module — which keeps the connection to the component concerned — or in the ship defect module directly. The report carries the description, the affected component and, depending on the configuration, a risk assessment and controls. See Ship Defect Report.
A stevedore damage is recorded on the report for the port call in question, one entry per damaged item, with photographs. Photographs matter more here than anywhere else: they are the evidence for the claim later. See Stevedore Damage Report.
Attachments follow the usual pattern — see Attachments.
Deciding what happens
This is the step that separates a report from a job.
For a ship defect, the office assigns who handles it and how it goes on. Depending on the configuration the defect carries actions of its own, tracked individually with a responsible person and a due date — see Action.
For a stevedore damage, the entry is approved and thereby released for repair; it then sits in Approved / Ready for Repair. Until it is approved it counts as a draft, and that distinction has a practical consequence: a draft can still be edited and deleted on board, an approved damage only in the office. On board those buttons are then disabled — deliberately, not because a right is missing.
Repairing
The repair records what was done and which spare parts were used. Recording the parts is what connects this workflow to the stock: saving the repair books the quantities out of the vessel's stock, so the stock does not have to be corrected separately.
Three points decide whether that booking actually happens, and they are the usual reasons why it seems not to:
- Only real stock items are booked. A part entered as free text leaves the stock untouched — which is the argument for maintaining spare parts as stock items.
- Stock is kept per vessel. A case edited without a vessel link books nothing.
- Where you save matters. Saved on board, the stock changes immediately. Saved in the office, the change reaches the vessel as a correction request that the crew has to confirm first — see Stock Corrections from Office.
Corrections settle the difference only: raising a quantity books the extra amount out, lowering it credits the difference back, removing a line credits everything back. The details are under Repairing Damages.
If the parts have to be ordered first, that runs through the purchasing workflow and comes back here once they have arrived.
Closing
A ship defect is closed on board once the work is done, and confirmed by the office afterwards — completed on board is not the same as closed.
A stevedore damage report closes by itself once its last damage has been marked as repaired. A report that vanishes from the open list right after the final repair has not been lost; it has simply been closed because nothing was left to do.
What remains afterwards
The history keeps who reported, decided, repaired and closed, and when — see Show History. For a stevedore damage that record is the basis of the claim against the party that caused it, together with the photographs and the repair costs.
Both kinds of report can be printed and saved, with their attachments, for anyone outside the system who needs them — see Printing, Exporting, Sharing Data.