How to maintain the IHM Part I?

After the initial IHM Part I certification, shipowner must keep the IHM up to date by maintaining it. To be in compliance

1. Your company must have an appointed person responsible for IHM Maintenance. Those people are called IHM Designated Person(s) (IHM DP).
2. Your company must have an IHM Maintenance procedure/manual, which is implemented and integrated into your safety management system.
3. IHM DP should make sure two forms; Material Declarations (MD) and Supplier Declaration of Conformities (SDoCs) are received from their suppliers for the purchased equipment, machinery and products.
4. IHM DP should record changes in an IHM maintenance log, In case a hazardous material is declared in an installed product, IHM must be updated.

Supplier is defined as an agency, trader or manufacturer according to the MEPC 269(68) IHM Guidelines. MD and SDoC forms must be prepared by the supplier, who sells the product to the shipowner/shipmanage/shipyard. To do that, the supplier must contact to their sub-suppliers and get the information, based on the homogenous material criteria as defined in MEPC 269(68) Appendix 3.

There are 15 hazmats in the scope of the EU SRR. Suppliers have to declare in the MDs, whether or not those hazmats are above the specific threshold levels in the product. Even if there are no hazmats in a product, still MD/SDoC forms must be prepared by the suppliers and collected by the shipowners. 

To be in compliance, Shipowner has to inform their suppliers properly in advance. It is recommended to insert MD/SDoC delivery requirement in Purchase Order (PO) terms & conditions (T&C), so that legally suppliers agree to provide the forms, when they sign the PO T&C. Some Flags proposes alternative Solutions for Collection of MDs & SDoCs by using PO T&Cs. If this is what your company is doing, make sure that it is properly decscribed in your IHM Maintenance procedure.

Scope of IHM Part I Maintenance

Collection of MDs is not only for significant parts, it is about all the machinery and equipment installed on board as a fixed item, and used in order the ship to operate. In this regard, we are talking about but not limited to: any machinery and their sub-parts, valves, pumps, pipes, gaskets, insulation material, brake linings, paints, cables, batteries, navigation equipment installed as fixed items. 

All those MD and SDoCs shall be recorded properly. As the number of documentation can exceed hundreds, DNV offers the IHM Manager software, which is self-service data management tool in Fleet status to support IHM maintenance.