Data intelligence is king

The shipping industry holds tradition, custom and practice in high esteem, and rightly so. But the old ways are not necessarily the most effective in this modern world. The feeling at Nor-Shipping 2015 in Oslo was that the tide is turning, with many stakeholders starting to embrace new technologies which can deliver significant operational benefits.

The value of accessing real-time data across a fleet of ships as part of a shore-based management strategy is also being recognised, but the short-term challenge will be to ensure stakeholders are fully equipped to understand the data. Only then can they reap the benefits of this intelligence in their drive towards safer, more efficient and cost-effective asset performance.

The multiple pressures on the global maritime industry mean that ship owners and charterers can no longer afford to ignore the performance of their fleet. This in turn has led to an increase in demand for fleet and vessel performance management (FVPM). However some ship owners, operators and charterers are still wary of the value such a monitoring system can deliver. Perhaps this is understandable, having been used to chief engineers who produce miracles on a regular basis, armed only with the dials in their engine rooms. The sophistication of the data and what it means can be daunting, and as such a headache stakeholders may seek to avoid.

Quick wins such as on-board optimisation and energy-saving devices (ESDs) have quickly come to the fore. However, it’s important to note the limitations of such an approach. Whilst there are savings to be made, they are hard to quantify in a verifiable way and these tools can often be seen as a burden to the crew.

Shore-side performance management can provide ship owners and charterers with the tools to manage whole fleets of vessels. This easy-to-use, automated process can focus on commercial factors such as the voyage cost, by monitoring in real time the actual versus budgeted cost. Owners whose vessels are on time-charter can also monitor compliance against existing charter party agreements and use performance management data to construct speed-consumption curves for future charters to help maximise revenue.

Such an approach can also address the asset is performing techncally by looking closely at hull and propeller degradation, engine condition, fuel consumption and the evaluation and verification of specific ESDs such as hull coatings or propeller boss cap fins. The operations department can obtain valuable information on trim optimisation and on-time performance, such as the chance of making a scheduled arrival time.

Untapped data sources

Although FVPM is on the increase, many stakeholders are still unaware of its full potential. A key challenge for many stakeholders is high retention rates of crew personnel. On average, crew within cross-ocean trades can change every six months, or every three to four months within coastal trades. This issue is leading to a situation whereby crews cannot build up a comprehensive understanding of the optimal way of operating a specific vessel.

With shore-based performance management, owners and charterers can compare crew performance and identify specific trends in the way in which they operate the vessel: why one crew is burning less fuel than another when the environmental conditions are the same, for example. This can provide a much easier route to sharing best practice, and even if the crew is relatively new to a vessel they can be equipped with the knowledge to optimise the performance. There are already companies who set KPIs for their crews and incentivise them if they can burn less fuel or optimise arrival times – no doubt this will become commonplace in the near future.

E-navigation is expected to have a significant impact on marine navigation. The IMO describes “a clear and compelling need” for “modern, proven tools to make maritime navigation and communications more reliable and user friendly and thereby reducing errors”. But without proper coordination, there is a risk that the development of navigation systems will be hampered through a lack of standardisation. The industry must expand the idea of e-navigation by thinking about it more holistically under the umbrella of ‘vessel performance’. That way, stakeholders can start monitoring vessel performance, safety and risk management all under one system, eliminating unnecessary complexity.

Data from performance management systems such as BMT SMARTFLEET can also provide a pathway to effective predictive maintenance models. Such systems can already identify inefficiencies – the next step is to identify actions and provide advice to stakeholders. Dry-docking for maintenance and renewal of antifouling can be timed to take place just before any rapid drop-off in vessel performance, highlighted by historical and probabilistic efficiency and operational data.

What does the future hold?

It is not unrealistic to envisage a time when all merchant vessels are equipped with a fully integrated bridge, with performance parameters and emissions data are displayed alongside navigation systems and thruster controls. Voyage planning can already be checked against efficiency and emissions requirements to identify the most appropriate routing, while performance management reports can be produced automatically. Such reports can cover everything from environmental impact, hull and propeller efficiency and bunkering factors through to crew data, scheduled maintenance results, economic modelling and SEEMP/legislation.

The combination of more rigorous legislation and harder economic conditions has led ship owners and operators to demand easy access to emissions and performance data. The benefits of being able to use real-time data to dynamically manage the performance of a fleet of vessels, or to make informed operational and maintenance decisions based on data analysis, are hard to ignore.