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Calling it "the next logical step in marine technology," Crowley Maritime Corporation is installing Cat® Asset Intelligence software on one of its vessels.
The tugboat Guide, a ship-assist vessel operating out of Seattle, is being fitted with a custom vessel monitoring and diagnostics solution that will keep watch over its main engines, generators, thrusters and critical systems 24/7. While completely automated from data capture through analysis and advisory recommendations for each piece of equipment, the Caterpillar Marine Asset Intelligence team will provide advisory and management reports including recommendations for individual equipment and ways Crowley can save money and incrementally improve operations.
"It’s a robust system that does all the key monitoring and analysis we need," said Bill Metcalf, vice president of strategic engineering for Crowley Maritime. "We’re looking at it as the next level of
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management and optimization, and we want to see how it can help us increase reliability, safety and efficiency onboard our vessels."
Unlike technologies that only monitor engine performance, Cat® Asset Intelligence services provide monitoring and diagnostics for an entire vessel, including many of its operating systems. Dedicated Fleet Advisors then use the aggregated data and automated analytics to provide customers with actionable advisories to increase vessel productivity and improve equipment management.
"It can give us early warning of a catastrophic failure so we can schedule maintenance. It can save us time and money during the inspection process. It can help us keep our vessels and people out of harm’s way," Metcalf said. "We’re also looking at fuel savings. That’s not likely to be a big issue on Guide, because of its size and application, but it could be huge for our larger vessels."
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