ABB is to open a second Integrated Operations Centre in Helsinki, Finland to facilitate knowledge and information transfer to strengthen the shore side capacity of the Passenger, Cargo and Ice going vessel sectors.
The centre will connect to any passenger or cargo ship and monitor the performance of ABB technology on board, including ABB’s Azipod units. The Integrated Operations Centre will also connect to the ship owner’s onshore operational centres to support their operations department in troubleshooting, maintenance planning and fleet benchmarking.
Performance monitoring of whole fleets will be possible via the sensors and software onboard the ships that use satellite links to send equipment and performance data to ABB’s experts. This reduces the chance of unexpected downtime and expensive missed port calls.
All data collected at the centre will be combined from all its monitoring software and sent to the cloud automatically, as well as data which is manually collected from condition-monitoring surveys and feasibility studies.
The new operations centre is part of ABB’s concept, The Internet of Things, Services and People, which aims to use the latest technologies to allow customers to connect with ABB from on shore or on board to enable the transfer of knowledge and support in just one click.
Furthermore, the Integrated Operations Centre will allow ship owners to have greater control over the performance and maintenance of their Azipod propulsion units. The Azipod Monitoring Services provides the real time health status of Azipod items and where any abnormalities occur, the system generates an early alarm that maximises the reaction time for maintenance support.
Jussi Vikström, VP Propulsion Product Service, commented: “We can monitor the vessel motion and power plant context also, which allows us to analyse and recommend preventive measures to extend the lifetime of the monitored equipment.”
Marcus Martelin, VP Services for the Passenger and Cargo Segment at ABB, added: “From the Integrated Operations Centre we can identify onboard issues before the crew even knows about it and make many interventions predictable”.
The opening of the second centre comes following the successful launch of a similar facility in Billingstad, Norway, which has oversight of ABB’s customers in the oil and gas sector. Further centres are scheduled to open in Asia and the United States in 2016.
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