Peer to Peer

Rugged PCs on the high seas

To overcome harsh shipboard conditions and the variable climates that its fleet of ships encountered, Fleet Management deployed Lenovo ThinkCentre PCs on its vessels, says Abhinav Singh.

Fleet Management Ltd. has to manage a fleet of 156 vessels that move across different countries with varied regulations and cultures. The company was looking for PCs that were robust and could withstand the vagaries of the environment onboard the company’s fleet of ships. Managing PCs onboard on long voyages was another challenge for a ship’s staff who needed to continuously access a business application called Planning and Reporting Infrastructure for Ships (PARIS).

PARIS allows the company to port a pseudo Website onto workgroup PCs running Linux so that a ship’s staff can view information relating to their vessel such as its exact position, cargo loaded and dispatched as well as financial reports. The two way exchange of information across workgroup PCs and the company’s primary Web site happens via INMARSAT satellites (a global network of geo-stationary satellites used for telecommunications by ships), which helps the company keep the workgroup PCs synchronised with its Web site.

PARIS has been implemented on Lenovo desktops (ThinkCentre M51 and A51 PCs). The application integrates Fleet Management’s planned maintenance system, inventory control, accounting and training (on vessels and at its offices).

Another application called TOLAS (Training On Land And Sea) also runs on the ThinkCentre PCs. It helps the company provide a pseudo Web site implementation of its training Web site on the vessels and at the offices. Users benefit from being able to view videos and undergo training as they would at a training institute. This helps the company record onboard training and identify the skill gaps that can be corrected at an early stage. The primary Web site is also replicated across branch office Web servers (running on ThinkCentre PCs) and the staff at branch offices can also take part in training programs.

The need for accessibility

"The PCs that were installed earlier could not withstand the pressures of the high seas. Since technical personnel are scarce onboard and getting a replacement part amidst the ocean is out of the question, we required PCs that were more robust." Capt. Arvind M Karandikar General Manager-Quality & Safety, Fleet Management Ltd

Before going in for Lenovo desktops, Fleet Management had gone in for desktops belonging to a Chinese PC brand called ASSESS. However, post-deployment, PCs running PARIS began to crash.

Captain Arvind M Karandikar, General Manager – Quality & Safety Fleet Management, explains, “The PCs that were installed earlier could not withstand the pressures of the high seas because of climatic variations at sea. Technical personnel are scarce onboard and getting a replacement part amidst the ocean is out of the question. In order to contain this situation, we required PCs that were more robust and could withstand the variations of the oceans.”

Evaluation

The company wanted PCs that were durable and required minimal maintenance. They were also looking for a global company with a strong brand image. Other important criteria considered were that the PCs should be compatible with Linux and come with excellent after sales support.

Karandikar says, “There are strong vibrations onboard, which result in the frequent breakdown of a PC’s RAM modules. We were looking for a PC, that could withstand such pressures. We tested PCs from Dell, HP Compaq and Lenovo onboard and finally zeroed in on Lenovo.”

After the evaluation and testing, the company found that ThinkCentre PCs from Lenovo have the ability to perform well under its unique conditions and give it the lowest Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). The company had also been using Lenovo PCs across its offices and had prior experience with the brand. $1.5 million was spent on the Lenovo PCs—around 450 were purchased and deployed on FML’s fleet of ships.

Project in a Nutshell
Project started	June 2005
Project completed	Early 2006
Aim	To install PCs that could withstand variations of the shipboard environment and required minimal maintenance.
Solution	ThinkCentre M51 and A51 PCs
Investment made	$1.5 million
Vessels covered	156
Number of PCs installed	450
Tangible benefits	Saved cost and time spent on repairs, eased manageability, low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

Installation— nice and easy

The installation of Lenovo ThinkCentres took about eight months. The project started in June 2005 and was completed in early 2006. Three people were involved in the exercise (two in Mumbai and one in Hong Kong). The installation was gradual because the vessels are on the high seas for the greater part and it was required that they be docked at port for the deployment to take place. So whenever a ship docked, PCs were loaded and installed and, in time, all 156 vessels were covered.

Karandikar says, “ThinkCentre PCs have been deployed on vessels for over six months now. The lifespan of a PC in the shipping industry is one to two years. Till now, the PCs have been delivering robust performance, day after day.”

Additionally the company found that the ThinkCentres can withstand a high degree of variation in temperature as the vessels have travelled to places such as the North Pole and Abu Dhabi.

The company also discovered that the ThinkCentres aren’t vulnerable to onboard vibrations. Their compact size is an additional advantage—space is at a premium on a ship. The ThinkCentre PCs are easy to handle when it comes to operations such as installing a hard disk. This factor is important in a shipping environment where there is a lack of skilled IT staff onboard.

Fleet Management occasionally requires voltage to be changed from 110V to 220V (the voltage systems depends upon the make of the ship). Changing the power plug is a simple task with ThinkCentre PCs. The PCs have also helped save cost and time spent on repairs and eased manageability.