Finding a
way to accelerate transformation
• IT Service Management
• IT Asset Management
• Field Service Management
Challenging the elements
to meet global demand
When organizations say they go the extra mile for their customers, few go as far as American Seafoods. Operating in the waters of the Bering Sea and the North Pacific Ocean requires expertise, skill, and courage to capture some of the world’s most coveted wild fish species. American Seafoods is the largest at-sea processor of wild Alaska pollock and possesses the largest allocation of wild Pacific hake. Its quality-assured products are distributed worldwide.
Sustainability is at the core of American Seafoods’ operations, from its headquarters in Seattle, Washington, its home port in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, its global sales and distribution network, and aboard its seven state-of-the-art vessels.
Detailed management of every aspect of crew rotation on each vessel voyage is vital to the business. Highly skilled men and women from 90 countries around the world work for American Seafoods, forming closely connected crews for each voyage. Ensuring the right people are on the right vessels at the right times is a challenge. Communication between teams at sea and on land to manage crew members, while maintaining accurate records of each vessel, is essential.
However, existing systems were highly customized and inflexible, requiring manual intervention for every change in business requirements. In addition, there were few opportunities for collaborative work between teams on land and at sea.
“Our crew is our field force. We saw parallels between FSM and what we do to manage our vessels. By expanding work orders and tasks within FSM, we were able to manage each season and each voyage of each vessel.”
The implementation of FSM also provided the opportunity to reengineer the underlying processes, enabling real collaboration within the system, which has been transformative for their staff.
“Now we plan crew rotations in advance for an entire fishing season in FSM, budgeting and allocating resources for each voyage of the season on each vessel, which saves time for all our teams.”
Leveraging FSM, all crew changes, both personnel and role, can be made in real time by HR teams on land or by the purser or first mate aboard the vessels, with those changes automatically shared and visible to all parties. Previously, changes on board generated requests for HR teams on land to update systems, a process that sometimes took a long time.
An integration between FSM and the company’s HR system means that the employment details of all crew members are available in a single, secure location, for teams on land and at sea to consult simultaneously and have access to complete records in one place, complying with U.S. Coast Guard reporting requirements.
“FSM provides us with fast, efficient, and seamless processes, and we can collaborate with vessel managers in real time,” explains Dar. “There is confidence in the system, with everyone looking at the same information, providing the visibility and control that our vessel and HR managers need.”
The data in ServiceNow, integrated with other internal systems through ServiceNow’s powerful integration tools, allows the company to scale and modernize its legacy systems in a controlled manner and without disruption to its essential functions.
“The more precisely we plan each voyage in FSM, the more likely we are to achieve production goals,” explains Dar. “This maximizes efficiency, helping to maintain high retention rates.”
Smoother operation is not the “final catch” for American Seafoods. Dar sees the potential that the ServiceNow platform could offer to help the company achieve its sustainability and ESG goals, thanks to its integrated generative artificial intelligence capabilities.
“Our possibilities are endless with ServiceNow,” says Dar. “Artificial intelligence could be the next big change.”
“Our people possess an enormous amount of knowledge about the industry, and we have access to large volumes of data, including some public and industry-related. The insights that artificial intelligence can generate could help us further protect our fishing grounds and improve our performance.”
