Northern Lights, the US-based marine power generation manufacturer, has recently announced that is has acquired ISO9001:2015 Standard certification, becoming one of the first marine companies to do so, and that in the near future it will be partnering with a well-established engine manufacturer to provide IMO Tier III certified generator solutions to the superyacht market.

“This achievement is a team effort,” starts Northern Lights vice president and general manager, Brian Vesely. “As demonstrated by our transition to ISO9001:2015, we work diligently towards continuous improvement. By endeavouring to raise the bar each day, we feel confident that we will continue to provide the best in product and service to the market.”

ISO9001:2015 is the most recent and discerning iteration of the International Standardisation Organisation’s certification for a company’s quality management systems. The certification validates an organisation’s commitment to continuous improvement in a variety of areas such as efficiency, risk management and various other managerial and developmental fields.

Unlike other, larger companies, Northern Lights considers itself a post-production mariniser, meaning it uses a base engine from a reputable manufacturer and then proceeds to marinise and customise its individual elements in house. In this way Northern Lights differentiates itself from OEM manufacturers and the ‘package’ manufacturers that rely on add-ons, ensuring, it believes, a greater degree of flexibility and customisation.

“The time is high right now to come out with the next generation of marinised engines, and that is what we are currently working on - within the mid-range of 50-250kw - using a new base engine manufacturer,” continues Vesely. “What we are creating is a fully IMO Tier III-compliant package that can be backwards produced to suit vessels with IMO Tier II requirements, such as those below 500gt.”

While Vesely is not yet at liberty to discuss the ‘who’ element of Northern Lights’ newest development, he was able to reveal that a strategic partnership agreement has been made with “a vendor well-known in the superyacht industry”.

The landscape, he explains, has dramatically changed within the last year with clients’ interest in Tier III compliance shifting from curiosity tinged with an air of avoidance, to an abundance of genuine requests for quotes regardless of whether or not Tier III compliancy was a necessity on board or not. “We are now speaking to many more clients who want to get ahead of the curve and show that they are being green – even when they are not required to be,” Vesely concludes.

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