3D models of vessel equipment can create value during design, engineering, testing and maintaining cranes and other deck machinery
Digital twins of onboard equipment are value-creating 3D simulations of systems in their operational environment and can be used as cost-effective learning tools for vessel owners and deck machinery manufacturers.
MacGregor vice president for digital and business transformation Dennis Mol said digital twins can be adapted for client requirements and different applications.
“A digital twin provides cost efficient and low-risk learning compared with the physical world,” he said at Riviera Maritime Media’s How digital twins drive vessel efficiency and voyage performance webinar on 13 May.
“It is tailored to different value streams of each customer process step, by understanding its specific operation.”
Digital twins can be used during system design, engineering, building and testing, to simulate equipment operations, servicing and maintenance and provide a tool for training crew.
“In design verification, it is about saving time by rapid prototyping and faster requirements definition,” said Mr Mol. “It is about clear scoping in terms of functional features and benefits.”
Using digital twins to lower pre-calculated risk margins will “avoid cost over-runs and future failures” or excessive costs.
“It is about avoiding incidents by teaching correct equipment use,” he said. “To train crew on board, thus saving travel to training centres and avoiding wear and tear on equipment.”
Digital twins can be used to provide maintenance advice to crew to fix operational issues. “We can avoid service visits and improve logistics,” said Mr Mol.
MacGregor develops digital twins in collaboration with its vessel-owner customers to produce value for all stakeholders.
“Digital twins can replicate and predict future operations or help provide advice and actionable insights,” said Mr Mol.
“We invest and develop these digital tools if we have a joint collaboration with our customers,” he said. “With early-adopters we are striving and exploring value creation in their processes.”
Vessel owners gain value from improved design and engineering of onboard systems, such as MacGregor cranes. They benefit from improved maintenance, higher safety and less downtime.
“We are also sharing the value with our customers,” said Mr Mol. “We can get a fair share of that value and return on investment.”
MacGregor’s returns also come from the ability to feedback operational experiences into its engineering and digital twins. Their use has also led to a change in business culture.
“We are creating an entrepreneurial culture within MacGregor,” said Mr Mol. “To try and try and again to make digital twins even better for more success together with our customers.”
Digital twins need to meet MacGregor’s five success indicators for deployment in customer operations.
“Firstly, all our simulation algorithms should be based on explainable projects that means our expert knowledge should be validated,” said Mr Mol. Then, vessel operators can judge MacGregor’s digital models by challenging them based on their operational knowledge and experience.
“Those first two are important for building trust in our digital twins and ensure they reflect reality,” said Mr Mol. “Of course, the software needs to be easy to configure, intuitive, easy to use and understand.”
Digital twins need to create value for vessel operators. “Digital twins are very valuable if they increase the efficiency of the operation,” said Mr Mol. “The most important thing is we need to understand the value our customers can create in their processes and operations by deploying digital twins.”
Mr Mol was joined on the panel during the webinar by DNV GL principal specialist Gaute Storhaug and Lappeenranta University of Technology associate professor Teemu Turunen-Saaresti.
Watch the How digital twins drive vessel efficiency and voyage performance webinar in our webinar library
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