DESMI adds smartphone app to training programme

Marine engineers and crew members can now train and learn about DESMI Ocean Guard’s CompactClean ballast water management system with two digital offline tools. One is a computer-based training program and the new arrival is a mobile app available from the Google Store.

While the e-learning tools were in development long before the Covid-19 pandemic, they come at a good time, said DESMI Ocean Guard technical manager and head of projects and engineering Mark Kalhøj Andersen. “It is a huge benefit to have these tools when we are in a situation where people cannot meet,” said Mr Andersen.

He continued, “We developed these as a way to reach out to all of our customers and also internally in the organisation with a training tool that would enable us to distribute knowledge in a fast and efficient way. Our customers are located all around the world with limited access to the internet, and it is not possible to run everything online. So we need to be able to distribute offline services that can be operated by downloading the tools when you have internet and then operating them offline.”

The tools will help vessel owners to educate the crew about ballast water legislation. They also help marine engineers to understand the ballast water management system: what it is, how to operate it and how to maintain and service it.

“These tools can – within one full day’s training – bring anyone who has to operate or maintain the system from 0% knowledge to 80%,” Mark Andersen said. “The last 20% is the hands-on part.”

The DESMI CompactClean App, available for Android platforms on Google Play Store, is an interactive training and support tool. Once downloaded, the app can be used offline.

The app is a visual, interactive maintenance manual. According to DESMI, it is a disruptive interactive manual for a smartphone, to train and support the user in a new and effective way. It also has a 3D visualisation element, where the user can drop into specific maintenance sections for every single component by pressing the dot on the component.

Additionally, a frequently asked questions section offers quick answers to the most common queries.

The app also features an augmented reality tool. Users can point their camera toward a plain surface, press a button, and a 3D version of the system appears on the floor of the room where they are standing. “You can walk around this system. And you can press on the different components to investigate what it is and how to do maintenance and service” said Mark Andersen. “If you do not have an actual physical system yet, but you know you are going to, you can do the initial training in a digital 3D version with your smartphone.”

Riviera is producing a range of technical and operational webinars with the industry’s foremost experts. To view all the previous webinars, in full, in our webinar library

Sign up to attend our upcoming series of free operational and technical webinars on our events page