Seatrade Maritime is part of the Informa Markets Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Live from SMM Hamburg

Rolls-Royce negotiating with key clients on power-by-the-hour

Rolls-Royce negotiating with key clients on power-by-the-hour
Rolls-Royce is now pioneering “power-by-the-hour” in the marine field and claims the model could reduce customers’ maintenance costs by as much as 25% over a 10-15-year contract.

Developed from its well-established aviation business model, TotalCare, based on life-time service arrangements for airlines in which thousands of jet engines are permanently monitored in real time, the company’s marine equivalent is aimed at maximising revenue and uptime for its customers.

With uptime guarantees, power-by-the-hour is designed to minimise the risk of unexpected maintenance or component breakdown. Marco Cristoforo Camporeale, general manager of the marine division’s Health Management Solutions, explains that four key elements reduce ship operators’ risk – vessel monitoring, remote assistance, dynamic equipment maintenance planning, and intelligent field services around the world.

A key benefit for customers, he says, is that efficient vessel operation becomes a partnership between Rolls-Royce and its customer. This means that the vessel operator only pays when the asset is operating and there is no need to maintain an in-house service capability.

“We share risk and focus on what we each do best,” Camporeale explains, revealing that the model also includes uptime guarantees from Rolls-Royce to keep an asset operating.

Two successful remote interventions which saved downtime both involved offshore vessels. In one, the subsea construction vessel Far Sleipner had suffered a dynamic positioning (dp) system breakdown off the west African coast. Using an encrypted link, a dp engineer in Norway was able to identify the problem on board the vessel and fix it.

In another case, the multi-purpose offshore vessel Viking Poseidon was heading back from the US to Norway when remote monitoring by Rolls-Royce revealed significant changes to vibrations in a thruster which had previously been identified as having a fault. Although the crew had not picked up any change in the thruster’s condition, Rolls-Royce was able to intervene remotely and recommend remedial action to prevent a major failure.

The company has several negotiations in progress with customers which have expressed interest in the company’s new approach to efficient maintenance management.