Caterpillar and SpecTec offer predictive maintenance

The cooperation will aim to reduce ship maintenance costs by enabling unnecessary maintenance to be deferred for shipboard equipment that is operating properly and identifying potential issues for action before a failure negatively impacts operations. Onboard sensor data gathered and analysed by the Cat Asset Intelligence predictive analytics platform will be integrated into SpecTec’s maintenance management system AMOS.

Based on component analysis, work orders can be automatically generated for either the next convenient time or for immediate service if necessary. Any service event triggered through AMOS can also be flagged to the relevant class society for inclusion in ship records.

The system, which can be used for equipment from any supplier, will aim to reduce the risk of human error and the administrative burden for seagoing engineers. Ken Crooner, technology and operations manager, Caterpillar Marine Asset Intelligence, noted that studies had revealed that up to 80% of equipment failures were not time-based, and that a significant proportion were due to human factors including unnecessary interventions on functioning equipment.

“It is well-known that unnecessary maintenance can be detrimental to the long-term performance of components on board a vessel and that many failures are not strictly related to the passage of time or operating hours,” said Crooner. “By implementing predictive analytics we are able to automatically and continuously analyse for random failures, along with degraded performance, and then notify ship’s crew immediately when those conditions begin to manifest themselves through their performance data.”