Sunseeker: from 15 systems and countless spreadsheets to one system

A complex environment with little room for error

Sunseeker builds luxury yachts across multiple sites on the south coast of England. Every vessel is built to order. There are no production lines in the traditional sense — the boats are hand-built, bespoke, and delivered to specification.

For the maintenance and facilities team, that means managing a wide and varied scope. Across the sites, they are responsible for workshop machinery, CNC equipment, cranes and lifting gear, forklift trucks, hand tools and site infrastructure, alongside a growing list of health and safety and compliance assets, from life jackets to training records.

This is a varied, compliance-heavy environment where potentially missing something can carry real consequences. To run effectively, it requires clear structure, visibility and reliable records.

The problem: work was recorded, but finding it took time and effort

Before Maintmaster CMMS, the work was getting done but the information behind it was fragmented across systems, spreadsheets and folders. As Matthew describes it:

“We had one system for managing the jobs and about 15 different systems for managing all the other bits, and countless spreadsheets.”

Jobs were not consistently linked to assets, and history was difficult to trace. Records existed, just not in one place.

“When you're going through a drive on a computer to look for a spreadsheet that somebody created in a different manner to the way the last four people created the other spreadsheet, none of it sits easily findable.”

The issue was not effort...it was control. Sunseeker did not need to fix a failing operation. They needed to bring a working one under control. The direction was already clear: move away from manual processes, reduce paperwork, and bring everything into one system.

From facilities to a wider operational system

Matthew joined the project shortly after the decision to adopt Maintmaster CMMS had been made. His background was in boat-building rather than software, which meant he understood the operation from the inside out. What started as a facilities-focused system quickly expanded into something broader.

Maintmaster CMMS is now used across four main areas:

• Facilities and site services

  Covers work requests and jobs. From CNC machine faults to blocked toilets. Issues are raised as work orders against the relevant asset, assigned to the team, and tracked through to completion.

• Production engineering

  Manages the machinery Matthew is directly responsible for (around 50 to 60 machines and several hundred yard assets) all recorded with service history and upcoming requirements.

• Tools

  A catalogue of approximately 7,000 to 8,000 individual tools, all logged and managed within the system.

• Health and safety

  The area that has grown most significantly. This includes cranes requiring annual inspection and LOLER certification, life jackets requiring annual service, and a full training and competency matrix for the workforce.

Recurring work and compliance: from manual tracking to system driven

One of the clearest changes is how recurring compliance work is managed. Take cranes. The business has approximately 25 cranes across all sites, each requiring a service and a LOLER lifting inspection every year. Before Maintmaster CMMS, tracking those dates and coordinating the work relied on manual tracking and constant follow-up. Now each crane is registered as an asset in the system with the relevant recurring jobs attached. When an inspection is due, the job appears automatically. That reduces the need to track dates manually or rely on individual reminders. The same applies to life jackets.

“You wouldn't think about it, but you have to get a life jacket serviced every year, otherwise you can't go on the water. We've got several hundred of those, and all of the servicing for those is recorded in Maintmaster.”

The training matrix is still being built out, but the structure is already live. Every employee is recorded in the system with their required core competencies, manual handling, forklift and scissor lift operation, crane operation, life jacket awareness, first aid, fire safety and more. The system tracks when each certification expires and automatically sends reminders when renewals are due.

“I've got 119 training records in my training due in the next three months file. That's just the people we have to book courses for in the next three months. This was a huge amount of movement that was all tracked by an individual person.”

The key point is not just the volume of work, but what happens when the person managing it is not available.

“If Roy, our training officer, breaks his leg and he's off for six weeks — his manager rings me up and goes, Roy's off. Can you set someone up? I can set them up as an email recipient and they get all the emails and know what to do. The system holds the information, not the individual.”

Day-to-day: a constant view of what’s due and what’s next

For Matthew, Maintmaster CMMS is not something he checks every now and then - it's always open on his screen.

“It's on my screen all of the time. I've got Maintmaster on my left screen and emails on my right screen. I don't really log out of it. It's a constant.”

Each day starts with a clear view of what needs attention. Each morning, he can see what is due, what needs a purchase order, and which contractors need to be booked. When a fault comes in, whether it is a CNC machine or a blocked toilet, a work order is raised against the relevant asset, assigned, and sent to the team.

The notifications are the part Matthew would be most reluctant to lose. Not just reactive alerts, but automated reminders for recurring work and upcoming requirements.

“The recurrent job notifications for someone who manages all of the maintenance on the machinery are huge, because I've got hundreds of bits of kit and they all need servicing and maintaining at different times. The stuff that requires contractors — that's the bit where my spreadsheet used to be enormous.”

This reduces the need for manual tracking and follow-up.

Maintmaster CMMS is also configured to send automated emails to people outside the system. Colleagues responsible for one or two assets, who do not need full access, still receive reminders when work is due.

Still building and adding more value over time

Maintmaster CMMS has been in use at Sunseeker for around two years and the system is still being built out. New areas are coming online, the training matrix is being completed and plans are in place to bring external contractors into the system.

“We haven't finished building this by any means, because the more you realise you can do with it, the more you can do with it. But it takes time.”

The value has become more visible over the past six months and continues to expand.

“It's like buying a toolkit on an apprentice's wage. You start off with a hammer and a screwdriver, which is great, you can do some stuff, but the longer you have it, the more difference it will make.”

The next focus is health and safety, particularly around people, tracking competencies and certifications in a more structured way. There are also plans to bring external contractors more fully into the system, particularly the lifting equipment inspectors who currently manage around 10,000 items of lifting gear across the business. Work is underway to link their system with Maintmaster CMMS so that all inspection records sit in one place.

For Matthew, that trajectory is the point, the more that goes into the system, the more it delivers.

And in Matthew's view Sunseeker are only just getting started.