Tips for Optimal Vessel Performance
Kartik Garg is a co-founder of Perfomax. Before co-founding the technological venture Kartik had experience in maritime sector as a naval architect and fleet performance analyst (ex-Bernhard Schulte). In this article he shares insights on the vessel performance management that could benefit your operations.
- Set up a baseline
A baselines acts as a reference to start comparison with historical performance and other ships in the fleet. This basic tip acts as a major motivation for development of complex systems to generate most ideal comparisons. Conventionally, CP contracts mention consumption-speed-weather (at this point, let’s call it the holy trinity of performance) criteria for Time-charter vessels as a baseline.
However, in modern terms, baseline could be generated from — Gray Box, White Box and Black Box models.
So, identify a model and define the baselines to start comparing today.
Do you know: Holy Trinity of the Party Contracts is a Black Box type model
- Identify the KPIs
It is the most important step for anyone who wishes to quantify the quality of their ship. KPI (Key Performance Indicator) should be acceptable to everyone, interpretable to even those who are foreign to the industry, and cater to different scenarios or types of asset to be managed. Some of the KPIs to keep a tab on in maritime should be
> Specific Fuel Oil Consumption — Machinery health
> Excess Fuel Consumption due to Hull/Propeller deterioration
> Data Quality Metrics
> Annual Emissions Rating
> Machinery utilization
Pro — tip: Maritime professionals should take inspiration from KPIs for Asset Management.
- Focus on Micro aspects
Micro aspects of Performance Monitoring means making sense of raw numbers. For clarity, Processes like MRV/DCS are macros, which work in the long term. Meanwhile, aspects like data quality, control of the reporting tools, etc could be a headache, but it avoids the long term migraine. Tools, Visualization with spreadsheet or PowerBI could be useful. So, in a nutshell, it is more about setting up a system which can be looked at in a routine.
Sneak Peak: PerforMax taylors micro aspects for customers requirement.
- Catch the digitalization Train
Everyone monitors their vessels, but with the advancement in technology such as non-invasive sensors, data readers, Multiple data source fusion with noon logs, advanced log visualization and processing system with digital twins, the game is changing at another level. It is a good idea to invest in a budget friendly system and stick to it throughout to ensure consistent KPIs, processing models, data quality assessment algorithms etc.
Let’s Think over it: Service providers should endeavor to make tools more accessible to everyone and at reasonable prices, otherwise, the maritime sector as a whole would lag behind.
- Trust your judgment and invest in people
Meanwhile, multiple tools exist to help you from 1 through 4, and conventionally, in the maritime sector, people trust those systems which are being used or invested into by either of the top maritime companies. This could shadow the judgment to opt for such tools which could be really cost inefficient. Trust your intuition as you know what you want, and not what the top companies want. Talk to companies who can help you, and assess the people who work with the company and what length they can go to solve your problems and help you optimize your ships.
Bonus Tip:
PerfoMax brings the power of top 5 tips to your fingertips. Request a demo today by sending a request on hello@perfomax.io with a reference to the article “tips for the optimal vessel performance” and get a 10% discount.
Our team will help you to identify the bottlenecks of operational efficiency and solve them with the modern technological tools.
With Best Regards,
Kartik Garg
Co-founder of Perfomax
