Performance monitoring evolves

After securing a major contract to supply systems for four very large crude carriers to be built at Samsung Heavy Industries, UK-based performance monitoring specialist BMT SMART has noted that growing demand for data is altering how the company works with shipyards.

BMT SMART had already won work from Samsung Heavy Industries on seven Suezmax and Aframax tankers being built for Norwegian and Singaporean owners. The scope of the latest project includes installation of the modular performance management solution, SMART VESSEL. This collects analogue and serial feeds before transferring data to BMT’s cloud-based system, SMART FLEET. From there, BMT experts analyse the data to find the underlying performance of the vessels.

The adoption of cloud-based systems such as SMART FLEET highlight a growing trend, says Mantel. He notes that most yards have a standard specification for performance monitoring systems which only requires a limited number of sensors to be connected. These have typically measured speed through water (determined by the speed log); time, date and position (determined by GPS, DGPS); vessel drafts (draft gauges), fuel consumption (flow meters, volumetric with temperature or mass flow) and shaft rpm, power and torque (shaft power torque meter).

Traditionally this information is only displayed on-board, but in the last five or so years Mantel has observed a trend for this data to be brought ashore so that the ship owners, managers and operators could see the information visualised and displayed. This has allowed them to spot trends in how a vessel is performing.

“We are now at the stage where digitalisation is starting to take hold and the owners, managers and operators have a thirst for more data to come ashore,” Mantel says. “This means that the on-board performance management solution has to have more sensors connections, either direct from the sensor or by serial connection from another system such as the AMS, ECDIS or cargo monitoring system.”

If owners and operators are taking a greater interest in their data, so too are charter parties. Mantel reports that such “end users” are increasingly requested for other items to be included in the performance monitoring system, such as cargo tank temperatures as well as temperatures and pressures from AMS for the main and auxiliary engines.

“Some customers use the BMT system to keep a remote watch on their assets, hence the need to capture more data than a basic performance management system would,” says Mantel. “In some case the request for additional data is coming from the charterer and the vessel owners have to agree to their requests.”

Gradually the company is seeing performance management being migrated to larger and more all-encompassing data collection platforms. “This will require companies such as BMT SMART to provide different solutions,” acknowledges Mantel. “One of these is our managed service approach to satisfy whole fleets.”

‘Managed service’ entails BMT SMART assisting their clients to reach their business objectives – or, as Mantel puts it, moving from fleet performance management to managed fleet performance. This means that BMT experts add value to the data, using it to draw out insights that contribute to the core business goals, be it to improve return on investments, accelerate time to benefit or reduce opex costs.

BMT SMART clearly is aware that, as ships become more technically complex, ship owners, managers and operators as well as charterers will want to see more data coming ashore. This is particularly true of systems demanded for regulatory compliance, including scrubbers and ballast water management systems.

Mantel adds: “Items as the EU monitoring, reporting and verification regulation, the IMO data collection system, the ISO 19030 hull performance monitoring standards, global and regional sulphur caps and ballast water management will lead to more end users adopting more complex onboard data collection systems. They will need to match this onshore with the display of data and understanding how to interpret and act on that data.”

The reality is that performance monitoring systems are evolving and becoming more complex, and it is the ship owners and operators that are taking the lead with the shipyards.

Mantel concludes: “In a world where we are inundated with data, it’s critical that we focus on providing a solution that helps to transform this complex information into actionable insights – only then can owners and operators truly begin to enhance operational efficiency and profitability.”