Spinergie’s client, a global leader in offshore wind farm development, is at the forefront of the international energy transition with operations in Europe and the UK alongside the USA, and other burgeoning markets. As the developer began operations at the first of its US projects, Spinergie entered the frame. With the project at the survey stage, and the developer dealing with several stakeholders, streamlining operations and ensuring all teams were equipped with user-friendly digital tools was paramount. Spinergie provided a solution that helped manage the wind farm survey project and that also equipped the team with reliable, actionable data that uncovered learnings suitable for carrying forward into future projects.
Context
The developer needed Spinergie’s intuitive and creative solutions to track and analyze operations in the survey phase of a US project. The survey scope included hundreds of technical investigation locations and thousands of kilometers surveyed. Multiple vessels, ranging from small scouting vessels to large geotechnical vessels, were deployed in the process.
Challenge
The project's scale and scope were vast. With so many vessels involved, tracking operations and compiling the data was intensely time-consuming for the survey team. Before adopting Spinergie’s Smart Fleet Management solution, the team had used a large, complicated Excel spreadsheet to track operations. With so many vessels involved, this was a headache to maintain and took up valuable time that could have been better spent.
However, tracking operations was only part of the challenge, as the team also needed to access data quickly and efficiently to share updates internally. They were also keen to use compiled data in the planning stages of future projects.
Spinergie’s Solution
The team used the digital Daily Report (DR) to manage its operations. The DR accurately translates operations into data by creating a custom-adapted reporting structure. The developer set its own criteria and key performance indicators (KPIs), which were then analyzed through data feeds, sensor information (fuel, engine hours, etc.), and automated reporting.
Automated reporting saves countless hours of data crunching and ensures uniform fleet reporting, allowing like-for-like analysis. It also helps uncover optimization opportunities and assists in reporting exercises internally and externally. The team was assisted with custom alerts and notifications to monitor real-time vessel operations. Alerts can apply to several customizable scenarios, including AIS disconnections or data quality.
As the developer decided to use Spinergie’s solution after the project was underway, our team mapped existing data into the new reporting module for a seamless transition.
Key features used in the survey scope:
Real-time tracking provides a live map showing vessel activity alongside contextual information such as weather conditions.
- A digital control tower consolidated various data feeds into one place, including high-precision vessel positions.
- The client could easily visualize weather conditions, vessel parameters, and assets, including private GIS elements, to better contextualize operations performance.
- Stakeholders set up customizable alerts for unusual operations (vessel breakdowns, transfer aborted, etc.) so operations could quickly return to normal. Alerts can also be configured according to the desired KPI threshold.
- Operational efficiency between teams and vessels was improved with predictive ETAs.
The digital Daily Report displays the status of each report, making it easy to understand and rectify any discrepancies.
- To streamline the team's reporting processes, all report fields were pre-populated with sensor data or values suggested by machine learning algorithms.
- Validation checks ensured the quality of data entry. By flagging invalid data at input, users could take immediate action to rectify it and eliminate rework.
- Collaboration became more efficient with reviews and clear approval workflows.
- The modular platform was tailored to suit the client's unique requirements and will evolve as operations progress, from survey to installation and onwards to the operations and maintenance phases.
- Specific report sections with an appropriate breakdown structure were easily sent to various stakeholders. This significantly improved internal communication, with everyone on the same page.
- The client could also benefit from offline mode when required. Offline mode stores in-progress data, allowing crews to continue working until the internet connection is restored without losing any progress.
The client also benefited from daily automatically generated Project Tracking reports, which were downloadable to all relevant stakeholders.
- These reports provided a daily progress curve for each element of individual survey locations to ensure they were on time and progressing as expected.
- Each vessel received a performance evaluation over time and daily, indicating the kilometers surveyed and the number of expected kilometers not surveyed that day. This made it easy for team members to see at a glance which project elements were working and which needed further attention and investigation.
These three main features were reinforced with additional dashboards, including the Vessel Schedule, which made it simple for the team to see the activities of each vessel involved in the project. As with all of Spinergie’s modules, the schedule is interactive, with several features to pinpoint information from calendars to filters. Snapshot images or raw data can be downloaded for easy sharing or use in further analysis.
Meanwhile, a Vessel Utilization dashboard visualized data over selected periods to allow internal teams to better understand individual vessel and fleet performance. The dashboard can be customized for each client’s requirements, but in this case, they were most interested in understanding the trends in sailing distance and the time each vessel was spending per activity (ashore, transit, etc.). This gave them a reliable, verifiable record of each vessel’s performance over the course of the project. It could then be used in reporting scenarios, future decision-making, or resolving any arising dispute.
Result
The survey team successfully used Smart Fleet Management to help manage the complex campaign. As the solution was implemented post-project commencement, there was an initial integration task for existing data, but Spinergie’s team was on hand to ensure a smooth process. Despite the solution being new to the team, they adapted quickly and enjoyed how easy it was to use.
Flexibility and customization were two key benefits the team enjoyed, as they helped ensure the solution was tailored to their exact requirements and operations. Streamlining their processes helped save at least an hour of time each day and made it much easier for all stakeholders to access the campaign summary and share progress reports internally.
With daily project tracking curves retroactively plotted against the forecast and ongoing progress, project managers were able to be reactive to any unexpected delays. Furthermore, from the data generated during this successful survey campaign, the developer will use the overviews from this project to help estimate the duration of other upcoming scopes.
Overall, Smart Fleet Management provided the developer with significant time savings, an efficient tool to share project progress internally, and a reliable, accessible data source that made it easy for the team to measure data consistencies.
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