Survey a fleet in a day

DNV GL’s new MMC unlocks unprecedented machinery efficiencies and insights

Hamburg - Machinery Maintenance Connect (MMC) is DNV GL’s new remote approach to the machinery planned maintenance system (MPMS). Instead of requiring surveyors to travel to each individual vessel and go onboard, machinery data can be processed via algorithms and presented to customers in a digital dashboard – enabling the survey of a complete fleet in one process and unlocking new insights into vessel and fleet performance.

“In another example of the benefits our customers are seeing from increasing digitalization, MMC will bring substantial efficiencies to vessel maintenance and fleet management,” says Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen, CEO of DNV GL – Maritime. “By using the data from the vessels, alongside a powerful learning algorithm, we can remotely perform the maintenance survey of a customer’s whole fleet in one process, saving time and reducing the disruption of daily operations.”

When owners start sharing vessel machinery data with DNV GL, then after accessing the MMC app in Veracity, the data for all vessels can be seen immediately. A minimum of one year’s data must be provided before digital MPMS surveys can be performed. 

“Once we have the verified MPMS data, to get going with MMC we sit down with management for an initial company audit that also functions as their annual survey,” explains Rolf Petter Hancke, Surveyor and Principal Engineer at DNV GL. “This reduces the time required significantly, in one case we completed surveys on 49 vessels in roughly four hours, something that would normally take 50 separate onboard surveyor visits. And the data is all right there – easily and directly accessible by management in real time.” 

The MMC system provides a complete breakdown of any maintenance already completed and overdue, with the dates of the work. By collating and presenting the data owners and operators can access data in real time to create a maintenance plan that can predict the requirements of individual vessels and, with AIS, utilize repair yards local to the position of the vessel.

“Machinery Maintenance Connect gives us improved transparency from vessel to office in following up on maintenance, says Karl Uno Holm, Ship Manager, Klaveness Ship Management. “I can easily monitor jobs done and see postponements across the fleet. I can also now do an audit on the vessels on a regular basis and the time we need for this is less than an hour.”

The MMC dashboard is split into two parts, a fleet overview that contains details of the owner’s entire fleet, and a vessel overview which details the maintenance tasks completed and any work that remains outstanding on individual vessels in the fleet. Both provide an overview of data across several systems including filter functionality, data quality, job due dates, completed and upcoming maintenance work, and an AIS map of vessel positions, which is also linked to weather data.

With MMC, owners have much better control over the maintenance regimes of all their vessels, allowing them to plan ahead for vessel downtime and offer their clients more reliable service. Every vessel is also surveyed in the same way, offering a more objective survey and providing easily benchmarking of their fleet’s maintenance. In addition, advanced analytics on machinery maintenance are available on request, and with all fleet and vessel data at hand, customers can easily provide machinery maintenance data to third parties.

Currently, DNV GL has more than 300 vessels using the scheme, with over 100 surveys conducted to date. As the service develops DNV GL is examining the potential use of the MMC approach for other survey types.  MMC is available to all ship owners and operators, whether the vessels are DNV GL classed or not.