DEM keeps a vessel's lifting equipment and its stores in one register: what it is, what it lifts, which certificate backs that number, and when it is next due. Then it prints the two documents that actually get asked for — a handover for your relief, and an inspection report for the surveyor.
DEM was built around what actually goes wrong with lifting gear aboard — not around a feature list.
A surveyor points at a shackle and asks for the certificate behind its SWL. The number is stamped on the body; the paper is in a folder, in a locker, from two crews ago. In DEM the certificate is attached to the item, and one certificate can cover the whole batch it came with.
A date in a spreadsheet nobody opened. DEM sorts every list worst-first: what is overdue leads the screen, then what falls due inside 60 days. An item with no date recorded shows as “No date” — not as compliant, because a missing date is not a clean one.
The bosun signs off and takes with him what he knew: which sling to watch, which pin sticks. DEM's handover report leads with exactly that — overdue, due, removed from service, low stock, signed out, and the items he flagged for a second look, with his reason.
Lifting equipment first, because it is the register with the sharpest teeth. The other stores follow the same shape.
Slings, shackles, chains and container twist-locks, each with its own SWL, certificate reference and next-inspection date. Anything taken out of service is excluded from the counts — and still listed, visibly, so it is never quietly missing.
One certificate usually covers a whole batch — twenty twist-locks, six shackles. DEM links it to every item it covers, so opening any one of them shows the paper behind its rating.
Each store hands you a blank template with the columns its type actually uses. Fill it in ashore, bring it back, and see exactly what will happen before a single row is written — including every warning.
A row of twenty twist-locks becomes twenty items — each with its own ID and its own life, so a single defective one can be pulled from service alone. A sticker on a box of twenty is not traceability.
Up to four photos or files on any item — the tag, the damage, the certificate. They stay on your device and travel in a backup or a ZIP export, never uploaded behind your back.
Not a compliance status. An item can be perfectly in date and still need attention — rust starting at an eye, a sticky pin. Flag it with a reason, and it lands in the handover report where the next keeper will read it.
Sign in with your email and the register follows you — phone today, browser and Mac next. Records sync; the photos and certificate files stay on the device. Once signed in, the app works offline for as long as the vessel is out of coverage.
A single .dem file holds the whole register plus every attached file, and restores onto a new phone in seconds. The ZIP export packs a report together with the certificates behind it — the paperwork travels with the numbers.
Every item gets a printable QR label from the moment it is created — thermal printer, 100×50 or 50×30 mm. Scan it on deck and its record opens: SWL, certificate, next inspection.
For the consumable stores: an in/out ledger behind every balance, so a drum that emptied has a reason and a name against it, not just a smaller number.
The same register in a browser and on a desktop, under the same account — for the office, and for the screen a surveyor can actually read.
Standard sling, chain, shackle and twist-lock sizes to speed up data entry — and deliberately no SWL values. Real safe working load comes off the item's own certificate, never off a size chart.
The same register, but not the same paper. A relief taking over the store and a surveyor holding a clipboard are not asking the same question.
For the man taking over the store. It leads with what he is inheriting, because that is what he is about to answer for.
For PSC, class or an internal audit. It leads with the compliance headline and sorts every table worst-first — because hiding the bad item only means it is found later, and found worse.
Two deck lockers, a bosun store, a paint locker aft. No two ships are stowed alike, so you create the stores — a name, a position aboard, and a type.
SWL, certificate and inspection dates, mandatory on every item.
Ropes, tarpaulins, hardware. A balance and a low-stock threshold.
Consumables and deck spares, tracked by quantity.
Expiry dates, batch numbers, and room for the MSDS.
Expiry, batch and litres — twenty litres stays twenty litres, not twenty items.
Calibration dates for the instruments, and who has the tool right now.
The type is what does the work: it decides whether a date means expiry or inspection, whether a balance is tracked, whether SWL and a certificate are required. That is why a paint locker's template asks for litres and an expiry, and a lifting register's asks for an SWL and a certificate number.
DEM is in active development. The lifting-equipment register, the stores, the Excel import and both reports work today — the app simply has not been published yet.
Tell us what your vessel's register looks like today — a folder, a spreadsheet, a whiteboard — and we will tell you honestly whether DEM is ready for it.