CONDITION BASED MONITORINGThe captains need to buy in this. If they don’t, it’s a fail.“When the industry goes to 0.1% sulfur content in fuel in 2015, the price of fuel is going to go up dramatically. A 1% savings this year could be a 2% or 2.5% savings next year.”Photo credit: LCS2, Fred FingerYour source for premium power transmission solutions for Marine, Indus-trial and Construction Equipment applications in North America (includ-VP of Vessel Ops, American Roll on Roll off Carrier, ing Canada and Mexico), the Caribbean and now countries of Central America and parts of South America including the nations of Columbia, on his push for a paperless wheelhouse.Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.American VULKAN Corporation Ph: 863-324-2424 | info@vulkanusa.com | www.vulkan.comtion, and emissions, ballast and other environmental issues ad nauseum. Classes of Management Tools“The amount of data that is processed nowadays was Rob Bradenham, General Manager of ESRG, devel-impossible just a few years ago,” observes Hendrik opers of OstiaEdge, a data analytics platform that helps Bruhns, CEO, Herbert-ABS Software Solutions, a pro- users to make decisions about fuel, energy, operation vider of operations management applications. and maintenance, divides the industry into two broad Smart operators also realize that while they can’t con- categories:American Vulkan MR Jan14.indd 1 12/19/2013 9:55:54 AMtrol the weather or the waterway, any more than they * Traditional ? eet management applications, which can control the river of regulation, they can control and act like “marine-focused ERP systems” with a strong plan their response to those variables. focus on managing maintenance. He said they’ll han-It’s all about scrabbling for savings wherever you can dle parts orders, maintenance crew scheduling, payroll, ? nd them. Pro? t margins are what keep shipping lines and track noon reports etc., often based on manually a? oat, and that is best secured by running a lot of tight input data. “They are like a marine version of SAP.” ships. And If you’re going to run a tight, compliant * Data analytics, which are software platforms that ship, it helps to monitor and track every turn of every connect to a variety of on board and on shore sensors piston, crank and wheel; every drop of fuel, ballast and and various ship systems and analyze automated data waste; every change in the wind, current and speed, feeds in a variety of different ways using different tech-and a million things in between. And if you want to do niques.all that, you can’t rely on the observations and record- Bruhns would probably re-label what Bradenham keeping of an ever shrinking, ever busier, fat-? ngered calls traditional ? eet management, as operations crew. No, you’re going to need help, primarily in the management. In his view, the latter looks at daily op-form of ? eet and operations management applications erations, such as trim, stability and load management, fed by automated data sensor feeds. crew workload and safety issues. He characterizes ? eet The goal here is not just to track and modify where management in general as being more concerned with needed, but, as Helm, a maker of vessel enterprise what drives fuel consumption and the overall position management and operations software, likes to say, your of the entire ? eet. To celebrate Maritime Reporter & Engineering News’ 75th Anni-solution needs to be “the information bridge between Both executives concede there is a lot of overlap be-versary, each edition in 2014 will offer a specially commissioned your departments, your vessels and your customer.” tween the two areas. Muddying the waters more, says feature article which examines a historical topic. Not to mention, a direct line to the savings column. Bradenham, is that applications in both categories vary Automating the data stream is a no brainer. No human in terms of their depth. For example, in the data analyt-The “75th Celebration” continues in earnest in can possibly track and count every little sensor blip or ics camp, some applications provide data transparency, the November 2014 “Workboat” edition, with a degree of change (and do it accurately every time). As enabling users to use the data and pipe some ashore, comprehensive review and report on McAllister Bore’s Mansnerus remind us, “If wrong input, wrong but don’t do much beyond showing the available data. Towing, one of the iconic companies serving the maritime market for 150 years.output.” Fortunately, there is no shortage of products At the other end of the scale are products that use a that can handle those chores ef? ciently and accurately. variety of analytics, from simple trending to complex 44 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • OCTOBER 2014MR #10 (40-49).indd 44 MR #10 (40-49).indd 44 10/1/2014 10:21:43 AM10/1/2014 10:21:43 AM