We are looking forward to continuing our work with the A&P Group as we implement our Lifting Equipment Safety Management System (LESMS) onto the four new ‘Tide Class’ Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels. 

RFAs Tideforce, Tiderace, Tidespring and Tidesurge will be fitted with the system from August 2018 onwards, after outstanding successes with the system on all Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels.   

LESMS was originally developed by IMES in response to a request from the British Government for a common approach to managing the compliance of lifting equipment across the UK Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary.

The user-friendly programme has multiple benefits: it eliminates the challenges of managing multiple assets across multiple vessels and addresses the challenges related to compliance management, safety requirements and controlled costs.  After 19 years of continuous development, LESMS has demonstrably increased safety and delivered cost savings across the UK Defence arena.

In practice, each item of lifting equipment on board a vessel is recorded and a file is built to provide full traceability of lifting equipment documentation.  LESMS is also used to create statutory Reports of Thorough Examination which can be held electronically or printed.  The secure system holds data on load tests, external certifications, non-destructive examinations and purchasing evidence.

LESMS is an inexpensive tool for all those tasked to improve safety and increase efficiencies in lifting equipment.