Juhani Määttänen
Director, Design & Engineering
Oy Naval Interior Team Ltd.
Finland
juhani.maattanen@nit.fi
Creating and managing an effective network of partners is a key factor in today´s maritime industry and especially in the cruise ship industry. The complexity of modern cruise ships requires a versatile and extensive supplier network with expertise from various fields of industry. This has led to the emergence of turnkey companies, such as NIT Naval Interior Team, whose task is to manage complete deliveries of various systems and areas within the ship. This business model has allowed more efficient management and delivery of increasingly complex projects and is one of the strengths of Finnish maritime industry in the current rapidly evolving business environment.
The role of the network of partners also becomes essential when discussing about sustainability in the maritime industry. Sustainability is not a responsibility of only one company alone, as it requires the actions of the whole network and each stakeholder has their own important role. Every supplier of a product or system is an expert of their own product and reducing the environmental impact of it. It is then in the hands of the Owner, Yard – and Turnkey suppliers to find and coordinate the most sustainable products for achieving the best outcome.
During the past years NIT has recognized the growing importance of sustainability and has emphasized this in all of its operations. This can be seen for example in NIT´s Quality Management System “GreeNIT” which stands for a novel and sustainable business concept that extends through the NIT´s operations from design to procurement and to production. Operations are also measured and controlled and NIT has for example together with VTT developed a Carbon Footprint Calculation tool to identify and calculate the environmental impact of its deliveries and helping its customers – and other network to reduce their emissions. Introduction of the tool has received a positive response within the industry and was even voted as the winner for the 2023 CSI Sustainability Award at the Cruise Ship Interiors Expo in London.
Sustainability is not only about reducing the environmental impact although it is a significant component. It also includes social and economic dimensions and ensuring that business practices are ethical, resources are used efficiently and long term value is created for all the stakeholders. One of the key principles in NIT´s way of conducting business is to be the preferred partner not only for the customers but for the network of partners as well. It is obvious that in order to achieve more sustainable deliveries targets and actions should be introduced and shared with partners. In addition, when developing sustainability together, the whole network commits to the shared goals.
NIT´s strategic approach is to continue developing more sustainable network and selection of partners who share the same commitment to sustainability. NIT is collecting the environmental impact data such as Environmental Product Declaration, from the network to steer the decision making and operations into a more sustainable direction and calculating carbon footprint of NIT´s deliveries sets the target for actions. Utilizing the network of experts in products and materials enables NIT to find the best solutions and implement them the most efficient way, reaching to reducing environmental impact. This approach also encourages our network to continuously develop their deliveries as well and ensuring the competitive edge for the whole Finnish shipbuilding industry and continuation of shipbuilding history into even more sustainable way.