At this year's SMM exhibition, MacGregor, part of Cargotec, plans to unveil a new digital solution it says is set to change the face of breakbulk stowage. Alongside this, the company has developed other elements of its digital portfolio, MacGregor Smart, and will showcase these capabilities during daily presentations at the exhibition held September 4-7 in Hamburg, Germany.
OnWatch Scout: building on years of remote-equipment access with offshore cranes, MacGregor will now offer a new intelligent prediction service for equipment on merchant vessels. MacGregor OnWatch Scout can predict and monitor upcoming critical issues and communicate them to customers, reducing unplanned downtime and giving back more cost control to the operator or owner of the equipment. The service also includes access to MacGregor OnWatch experts, who can connect to the equipment and effectively help resolve ongoing issues.
Voyage and port optimizer: said to be the world's first and currently the only platform for pure car truck carrier (PCTC) operators to analyze port calls and identify efficiency improvements. Until now, there has not been an effective way of measuring time spent in port and recognizing reasons for delays. These generate known, but undetectable losses and by identifying them MacGregor can save operators as much as $2.5 million dollars per vessel per year, while also reducing environmental impact.
Autonomous crane operations: setting new safety and efficiency standards, MacGregor and ESL Shipping Oy, part of Aspo Plc, are developing and testing an autonomous discharging feature on MacGregor bulk handling cranes. These will be the world's first autonomous discharging cranes equipped with self-learning capabilities.
"We are confident that our customers should be able to capitalize on the wide-ranging benefits that intelligent cargo handling can deliver," said Marcus Ejdersten, Strategic Marketing, MacGregor. "Our commitment to shape the maritime industry, drive its transformation and pioneer intelligent cargo handling means that, alongside our traditional equipment portfolio and worldwide service support, we are continually investing in the growth of new digital services.
"Our solutions can predict, safeguard, optimize and automate assets and operational performance, and therefore earning potential. We can reduce inefficiencies and maximize capacity utilization, which has a positive impact on the environment and, through automation, improve safety and efficiency even further," Ejdersten continued.
MacGregor will also demonstrate how safety improvements can be made by adopting fully-immersive virtual reality (VR) training programs.
"Through collaborations and working together with major stakeholders MacGregor is changing the way that it develops products and services for customers," Ejdersten said. "This ensures that they gain maximum benefits."
