Emergency repair request process map

What is in this map

17 steps across 4 swimlanes and 5 phases, with 4 decision points.

Swimlanes (who does the work)

Vessel / customer, Duty engineer, Project Manager and Workshops

Phases (left to right)

Report and triage, Classification and scope, Mobilization, Repair and test and Release

Why map this process

The critical-versus-routine decision is the map's whole argument in one diamond: a defect affecting safety, propulsion or sailing readiness mobilizes personnel immediately, bypassing the quotation and approval steps a routine defect still goes through. Drawing both paths on one page is what makes the trade-off visible — speed against safety risk versus the normal commercial control of getting price agreement before work starts.

Function testing, with its own pass/fail loop back into further repair, is what stops an emergency repair from being released on the strength of 'it looks fixed'. A defect serious enough to trigger this process in the first place deserves a test before release, not just a repair — the map does not let 'repair carried out' stand in for 'repair verified'.

Every step in the map

This is the spreadsheet behind the diagram. The numbers in “Goes to” are row numbers, which is exactly what the editor’s “Line to” column holds — so you can read the flow here and retype any part of it.

The decision points

Every branch in the map, with the label on each outgoing line. These are the questions the process has to be able to answer.

• 4. Defect affects **safety, propulsion or sailing readiness**?

  Owned by Duty engineer · Classification and scope

  • Critical → step 8
  • Routine → step 5

• 6. Customer **approves scope and price**?

  Owned by Project Manager · Classification and scope

  • Approved → step 8
  • Rejected → step 7

• 10. Repair is single-discipline or multi-discipline?

  Owned by Workshops · Mobilization

  • Single → step 11
  • Multi-discipline → step 12

• 14. System **passes function test**?

  Owned by Workshops · Release

  • Pass → step 16
  • Fail → step 15

Notes on specific steps

These notes travel with the map. In the editor they live in the Notes column and appear when you open a box.

8. **Mobilize** mechanical, electrical and hydraulic personnel

A critical defect skips the quotation step entirely and mobilizes straight from triage — the invoice gets settled afterward, the vessel does not wait on it.

Making it yours

The Line to column is doing real work at the mobilization row: a critical classification points straight past the quotation rows to mobilization, which is the one place in this map where the row numbers matter more than reading order — mobilization sits far from the classification decision in the sheet, and that distance is exactly what represents the two paths diverging. When adapting the single-versus-multi-discipline decision, keep both branches even if your yard rarely needs multi-discipline coordination: the rare case is exactly the one this map exists to make sure nobody improvises.

What to watch out for

• Do not remove the quotation step even though the critical path skips it. Most emergency calls turn out to be routine defects once triaged, and a map with no commercial-approval path for them would either force every call through the critical/mobilize path (expensive) or leave routine defects with no documented customer agreement at all.
• The function-test failure loop goes back to on-board assessment, not back to the original mobilization. A failed function test usually means the diagnosis was incomplete, not that the wrong people were sent — routing it all the way back to mobilization would re-run a step that already happened correctly.
• Triage is the duty engineer's own technical judgement, separate from the classification decision that follows it. Merging them turns a documented technical assessment into an undocumented gut call about urgency — keep the assessment as its own row so there is a record of what the duty engineer actually found before urgency was decided.

Frequently asked questions