NAPA has introduced NAPA Checklist, a new solution designed to digitalize onboard operational workflows for the maritime industry. The Helsinki-based maritime software company, which has served shipyards, shipowners, and class societies since 1989, built the system to walk crew members through each procedure in the correct order, automatically recording every action with a timestamp and the name of the person who completed it. Completed tasks feed directly into NAPA Logbook, eliminating duplicate data entry. Through NAPA Fleet Intelligence, shore-based teams can build and publish updated checklist templates to a single vessel or an entire fleet within minutes and monitor completion status across all vessels in real time.

Industry Context: Cognitive Overload, Not Human Error

According to Allianz data, total ship losses in 2024 fell to a record low, down approximately 75% over the past decade. However, reported incidents rose roughly 10% to 3,310. The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) reports that the human element is present in 78.8% of investigated casualties, and nearly half — 43.6% — of corrective actions relate to procedures: a step missed, taken out of order, or signed off when it was not completed. Meanwhile, the International Seafarers' Welfare and Assistance Network (ISWAN) found that more than half of seafarers (54%) report a heavier workload driven by the energy transition and growing regulatory demands.

As paperwork continues to grow while the working day remains the same length, these patterns point to cognitive overload rather than simple human error. The launch comes as the maritime industry broadly shifts from paper-based record-keeping toward digital tools, with electronic logbooks, fleet monitoring platforms, and shoreside data dashboards gaining traction among operators seeking real-time visibility and audit-ready records.

How NAPA Checklist Works

NAPA Checklist is designed to address cognitive overload directly. The correct, current procedure is built into every task, execution is guided step by step, and the record is written as the work happens. Completed checklists feed back automatically into NAPA Logbook and the shoreside NAPA Fleet Intelligence platform, removing the need for a second round of data entry. This approach lifts the cognitive burden of remembering every compliance procedure detail and returns time and attention to the crew.

The product consists of two components:

• NAPA Checklist App: A mobile-first application used on board, presenting each checklist as an automated, guided workflow in the correct order with the current approved procedure built in.
• NAPA Checklist Editor: Located within NAPA Fleet Intelligence, this tool enables shore-based safety and compliance teams to create and update templates, publish them to one vessel or the entire fleet in minutes, and monitor live shipboard data in real time.

This ensures that every ship always operates with the most current, approved checklists in line with compliance requirements. Checklist status — complete, in progress, or overdue — is visible fleet-wide from the shore office without needing to call the vessel. Timestamped, named records are available instantly for class and port state control inspections.

The product can be configured for mandatory checklists required under the International Safety Management (ISM) Code and the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), as well as for an operator's own internal Safety Management System (SMS).

Digitizing vs. Digitalizing

NAPA draws a clear distinction between digitizing and digitalizing. Placing a paper checklist on a screen, by itself, changes nothing about the work. NAPA Checklist, by contrast, transforms the work itself: it guides crew through each step in the proper sequence, embeds the current procedure into the task, and records the work as it is performed. This reduces duplicate administrative effort and produces one shared record.

The system is also connected rather than standalone. As part of the NAPA Safety Solutions suite — alongside NAPA Stability, NAPA Emergency Computer, NAPA Logbook, and NAPA Fleet Intelligence — it operates on a shared ship-to-shore data layer, ranging from the stability model established at the shipyard through to the logbook. The result is one consistent, shore-visible record rather than another siloed system.

Co-Development with Industry Partners

NAPA Checklist has been developed with officers and crew from leading cruise and expedition operators since autumn 2024. NAPA attributes strong adoption rates across every deployment to date to this collaborative development approach.

Vsevolod Pashkov, Maritime Compliance Manager and CSO at HX Expeditions, commented: "Operating in remote environments requires a balance of consistency and practical flexibility. We co-developed NAPA Checklist because we wanted a tool built around how our crews actually work. We expect it to bring greater consistency and efficiency to daily operations on board, reduce duplicate admin, and improve real-time information flow between ship and shore."

Sami Koponen, Product Owner for NAPA Checklist at NAPA, said: "There is a meaningful difference between putting a form on a screen and building a guided workflow that carries the correct procedure into the task, records it as it happens, and connects to the rest of what the ship already runs on. We built NAPA Checklist with crew from the beginning, which is why adoption has been strong everywhere it has been deployed. The goal was always to reduce the load on the people doing the work, not to add another system to manage."

Esa Henttinen, EVP Safety Solutions at NAPA, added: "The safety gains of the last decade were largely structural; better ship design, better stability, better emergency response. The data tells us the next decade is won in daily operations, where most incidents start. The human element sits behind nearly four out of five investigated casualties, and NAPA Checklist is built on a simple premise: take away the cognitive load that does not need a person and give attention back to work that does."

Source: NAPA