Engine OEM Identifies New Business Service

Disruption is an overused word in technology, but Joe Barkai’s tagline to his book about IIoT says it all: How the Industrial Internet of Things is Changing Every Business. For Mak, a supplier of engines to the maritime industry, that means changing their business model to focus and recognize that servicing their large engines remotely isn’t some wild science fiction fantasy. It’s a reality for OEMs as end users move toward IIoT strategies.

The maritime engine supplier is partnering with Caterpillar Marine Asset Intelligence (www.cat.com) and will create a condition monitoring approach for the first project. This project includes an M46 DF dual-fuel engine and will provide real-time monitoring on the ship.

“This effort enables operations and maintenance leaders to make better decisions using data and analytics, helping to drive reduced cost, downtime and risk,” says Ken Krooner, Technology & Operations Manager for Caterpillar Marine Asset Intelligence.

According to Caterpillar Marine, “the onboard analytics and user interface provide the onboard crew with real-time information, such as the condition of their equipment and what they should do about any potential issues.”

More importantly, the analytics software allows for multi-level reporting.

“At the highest level, there are high-level dashboards and reports which can provide a variety of graphs and data visualizations, including vessel performance curves, efficiency comparisons, custom metrics, geophysical location, says Leslie Bell-Friedel, global business mgr. at Caterpillar Marine Asset Intelligence in an interview for a company publication. At a detailed engineering level, there are simple red-yellow-green indicators for each piece of equipment that summarize the current and projected condition, as well as the ability to drill deep to understand the health and performance of a piece of equipment.”

Also, qualified data can be seen ashore, where additional automated analytics are used to analyze the data — both from an individual vessel as well as from a fleet perspective — and where experts are on hand to review the analytic output and apply their experience to it. Access to the analytics can be done via any web-based device, either onshore or remotely. At this point, there’s no app available.

Click here to read the Bell-Friedel’s interview >>

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