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A tanker planned maintenance system (PMS) is the structured digital tool that schedules, records and documents all preventive maintenance activities on board a tanker vessel — covering main engine and auxiliary machinery, cargo handling systems, safety-critical equipment and all other shipboard plant. For tanker operators, the PMS is both an operational tool and a compliance record: the source of truth that class surveyors, ISM auditors and SIRE inspectors examine to verify that the vessel has been maintained as required.
The fundamental difference between a tanker PMS and a generic maritime maintenance system is scope. Tankers carry cargo-handling equipment — cargo pumps, inert gas systems, cargo heating systems, vapour control systems — that has no equivalent on bulk carriers or container ships. Maintaining this equipment correctly requires a PMS built to manage maintenance on these systems, not a horizontal tool that treats them as generic equipment items in a standard hierarchy.
Tanker equipment maintenance runs on multiple parallel interval systems. Main engine and auxiliary machinery follow manufacturer-specified running hours intervals that accumulate based on actual operational patterns. Cargo pumps are maintained to manufacturer intervals adjusted for cargo types and cycle frequency. Safety-critical systems — inert gas generators, emergency shutdown systems, pressure/vacuum valves — have both mandatory test intervals and pre-operational check requirements that must be documented before each cargo operation.
Classification society surveys impose additional calendar-based deadlines on specific equipment categories regardless of running hours. These class-required maintenance events must be completed within defined windows and signed off by an attending class surveyor or, for continuous survey items, documented to class standards. A tanker PMS that cannot manage this multi-interval, multi-authority maintenance environment will produce overdue lists that do not accurately reflect the vessel’s actual maintenance status — which is precisely what SIRE and PSC inspectors identify during inspections.
The ISM Code requires every tanker to operate under a Safety Management System that includes documented procedures for ship maintenance — ensuring that inspection, maintenance and repair of the ship’s hull, machinery and equipment is carried out to established standards. In practice, this means maintaining a documented planned maintenance schedule, recording the completion of each job with the date, person responsible and parts consumed, and retaining those records in a form accessible to flag state inspectors and class surveyors on demand.
The ISM requirement is not met by maintaining records; it is met by maintaining records in a systematic and verifiable format. A tanker PMS that produces clean, complete and structured maintenance documentation supports ISM compliance actively rather than treating it as a reporting obligation to be managed separately.
The maintenance records that SIRE 2.0 inspectors review are the records produced by the vessel’s planned maintenance system. This direct connection means that the quality of PMS documentation — completion rates, overdue management, sign-off discipline — determines the quality of the SIRE documentation record without any additional preparation step.
Tanker operators who manage their PMS as a continuous operational tool, rather than as a system updated before inspections, enter every SIRE inspection with a documentation record that reflects genuine operational discipline. The distinction is immediately apparent to experienced inspectors and has direct consequences for vetting outcomes and charterability.
An effective tanker planned maintenance system connects directly to the vessel’s spare parts inventory and procurement process. When a maintenance job is scheduled, the system checks that the required spare parts are on board or on order. When a job is completed, consumed parts are automatically deducted from inventory, triggering re-order alerts based on minimum stock levels. This integration converts the PMS from a documentation system into an operational tool that drives the supply chain rather than running alongside it.
STAR Suite™ includes a planned maintenance module built for the equipment hierarchies, interval types and documentation standards of tanker operations. Class survey management, running hours tracking and ISM-compliant job documentation are core platform capabilities. The hybrid on-board and shore architecture means the PMS record that crew maintain during the voyage is immediately visible to the technical superintendent on shore when connectivity is available.
Tanker CMMS — computerized maintenance management for tankers, covering both planned and corrective maintenance across all vessel systems.
SIRE vetting software — how planned maintenance records feed directly into the documentation assessed during SIRE 2.0 inspections.
Tanker management software — the broader EAM platform that includes planned maintenance alongside MARPOL, QHSE and supply chain management.