When trying to leverage data to improve efficiency and safety, it’s common to see companies collecting lots of data without generating many meaningful insights. The reason for this is that data is not generated purposefully and in a standardized way.
In routine inspections specifically, there are many inspection tools available that give users the freedom to create their own templates from scratch. This leaves users with a high degree of flexibility, but at the same time creates a lot of work for shore teams which have to create inspection checklists for every vessel in their fleet. In addition, these tools often lack specific instructions for the crew, especially when it comes to taking pictures of details and specific parts of vessels. This results in a nonuniform dataset about the vessel condition that is hard to derive insights from at scale.
What is data standardization?
Data standardization is the process of converting data to a common format so that it’s possible for users to analyze it easily. It is about making sure that each data type has the same content and format.
For example, to make it possible to compare how the condition of your cargo holds developed over time, it is important to ensure every photo is taken from a similar angle. This guarantees the data collected over time are from the same perspective which helps the system to generate accurate analytics and make comparison possible. From that, you can identify emerging trends early.
What does data standardization mean in safety inspections?
Whether it is for Hull & Equipment or Safety inspections, standardized data collection across the fleet enables shipping companies to create a unified database for Vessel Health.
This creates a dilemma: On the one hand, teams ashore want high flexibility, but on the other hand it is time consuming to process data with different labels. One way to solve this is to create a semi-standardized model of building blocks. Superstructures, such as cranes or cargo holds, as well as components, such as fire dampers, always have similar characteristics. However, the number and position is individually adjusted and set up for each ship. This allows shipping companies to receive high quality data on a regular basis and extract insights from it. These insights can then advance the vessel management in a way that was not possible before. With the detailed and systematic vessel setup, shipping companies can also analyze the historical Vessel Health data and make comparisons across the fleet.
How does Kaiko Systems help?
Kaiko Systems is committed to empowering shipping companies to make the most informed and appropriate decisions. We provide flexibility and standardization to shipping companies at the same time.
Before rolling out our product on a fleet, we analyze General Arrangement and Fire & Safety Plans to understand the structure of the vessels. On top of our standard templates, we work with the team ashore to create necessary data components for the fleet. This means that shore teams do not have to go through the hassle of setting up their whole fleet. Instead, they get a complete setup in a way that is both standardized and detailed - not even one fire damper is forgotten.
