The International Marine Contractors Association’s (IMCA) Common Marine Inspection Document (CMID), associated CMID database and the electronic version – e-CMID have undergone a revision period following the first year of operation.

“Adapting the database to ensure we meet all requirements is important to ensure maximum use of this free and invaluable facility,” says IMCA’s Chief Executive, Hugh Williams. “Usage statistics speak for themselves – we have now chalked up eighteen months of use and have 1,110 users (operators/clients/inspectors) in 651 organisations; 408 vessels have been added and 99 CMIDs uploaded. The CMID, database and e-CMID are there for use by members and non-members alike. The more the system is used around the world, the more useful it is; and the more it eliminates doubling up on surveys. Details on any and every vessel on the database can be kept fully up to date and available at the click of a mouse.

“We now offer the facility of uploading paper versions of reports to the database for approval by the vessel owner or operator, knowing what a daunting task ‘starting from scratch’ can be. We want to do everything we can to encourage use of the online facility and the database. We are now working on a mini-CMID, CMID for small work boats, which will be available later in the year.”

”Feedback from vessel owners, operators and inspectors has been invaluable during this revision period – something we are eager to encourage on a continuing basis asking for comments to be sent to cmid@imca-int.com. We are also working with OCIMF’s OVID team to share experiences. Our workshops held in Aberdeen, Abu Dhabi, Den Helder, Dubai, Houston, London and Singapore have proved to be an important forum for discussion about improvements that will make the system increasingly useful to the marine contracting industry. Inspectors are invited to download the new version of the e-CMID application and all the new facilities will then be available to them.

Modifications and improvements that have been made to the system include:

The facility for finding a vessel has been improved with the vessel owners and operators and their vessels displaying alphabetically. Furthermore an indication of an available CMID is given The inspecting company logo and a photograph of the vessel may now be added to the cover of the report Rewording, or limiting options, on questions where NA (not applicable) and/or NS (not seen) are inappropriate responses which raise the need for a comment Photographs can now be added to the answers to certain questions in order to further illustrate the answer given The section on security has been significantly revised to address concerns raised A system has been introduced so that an internal quality assurance process may be carried out on a completed inspection report where necessary through enabling it to be reviewed by another person within the inspection company The crew matrix can be completed by the vessel owner/operator. For confidentiality the crew matrix has had the names column removed and the suggested approach is to list personnel as Master 1, Master 2, Chief Engineer 1, Chief Engineer 2 etc enabling the inspector to do a spot check when carrying out the inspection Lastly, there is now an ability to re-order the sections, but not the questions, to suit the order in which the inspection is carried out

“We’ve certainly come a long way since we launched the initial CMID hard copy version over a decade ago,” says Hugh Williams. "The original CMID was developed because vessels were subjected to repeat inspections, each with a slightly different format, because there was no acceptance of other clients' inspection results, and no common approach available. The CMID proved invaluable for vessel clients, owners/operators and inspectors alike. We launched e-CMID, along with the online CMID database, in November 2009 as a natural and logical progression to ensure the document's continued usefulness.”

Tags: The International Marine Contractors Association’s (IMCA)