Since the introduction of Hull Life Cycle Manager last year, users of the appliation have started to identify the need for better utilisation of the information contained within the system. By building on the idea of periodically and consitently reporting hull condition data for individual ships in a corporate fleet, the time has come to refine the information to the next level.

The main idea behind the analysis module is to view information across the fleet in order to spot trends and take appropriate action before damage becomes too costly or time consuming to repair. The analysis module will also make it easier for the technical management to understand why identical ship designs corrode and degrade differently as a consequence of different maintenance procedures applied for vessel repair, materials used and trade conditions.

The analysis module now available in Hull Life Cycle Manager takes advantage of the proven concept applied through MSSQL Server’s Analysis Manager. Using this OLAP service, we have built information cubes around the data stored within the database which enables the user to display an almost infinite number of views. Some typical information views of interest can be:

• How many class attention observations were recorded fleet-wide last year?
• How many outstanding crew attention items are outstanding for all ships in our fleet?
• What is the aggregated coating condition for all water ballast tanks broken down by vessel group or individual ships?
• The technical management has an opportunity to buy sacrificial anodes at a substantial discount.
  How many are needed for the entire fleet if only those depleted more than 70% are to be replaced?

The standard information cubes provided with Hull Life Cycle Manager are designed to provide relevant views from the current and cumulative observations recorded in the database. It is also possible for the users to alter these cubes or to make additional cubes in order to accommodate other applicable requirements.

With this new analysis capability built into the system, DNV Software has made another significant step forward in our continuous effort to extract the most valuable elements from the information stored in our systems. As the information continues to build up over time, we are now able to provide the users with a relatively accurate idea of what the future condition of their ships may be based on extrapolation of their own statistical information available in Hull Life Cycle Manager.