The first of these applications, Bromma Fleet Doctor™, has been developed for use by the spreader maintenance staffs of terminal organizations.

“Every terminal manager wants to run a high-performance terminal,” notes Bromma V.P. of Marketing Lars Meurling, “but not every terminal operates in ‘the green zone.’ Bromma Fleet Doctor™ is a new productivity application that we believe will help terminals achieve a higher level of efficiency and productivity.”

IDENTIFY DECELERATING PERFORMANCE — STAY UP AND STAY PRODUCTIVE

This new productivity tool from Bromma has several key features for terminal maintenance staffs. First, Bromma Fleet Doctor™ continuously monitors the operating functions of spreaders (such as expand/retract function, twistlock function, etc.) in order to detect and identify decelerating performance. Spreader performance is ultimately based the reliability of key spreader functions, each of which should operate within an optimum performance range. When one or more of these spreader functions moves from its “green zone” of performance into the yellow zone, this is an indication that service attention is needed to prevent further decline of the function, and/or to prevent faults that may cause downtime.  The detection of decelerating spreader function is an important first step to staying up and staying productive.

IMPROVED “EYES AND EARS” WITH WHICH TO ANTICIPATE THE FUTURE

In this sense Bromma Fleet Doctor™ gives terminal maintenance staffs improved “eyes and ears” with which to detect, understand, and resolve potential problems before they become real problems. Fleet Doctor™ helps terminal maintenance staffs see or anticipate the future, and this in itself is a boost to productivity, as it is always easier (and less operationally disruptive) to prevent a future spreader fault than fix a fault.

Bromma Fleet Doctor™ lets terminal maintenance staff see the future – and change it.

Second, Bromma Fleet Doctor™ provides very specific diagnosis of the source of faults when spreader downtime occurs. This enables service technicians to find and resolve problems more quickly so that spreader downtime can be minimized and spreader change-outs eliminated.

Rather than driving to the crane-mounted spreader and first looking for the problem (and then heading back to the service center for  spare parts or tools or wiring that may be needed), Bromma Fleet Doctor™ enables service technicians to know what they need to do before they even leave for the site of the crane spreader. This elimination of “fault search time” and the elimination of the time wasted during “back and forth” trips between the crane spreader on the quay and the maintenance operations center helps keep terminals operating in the green zone of higher productivity – which means a significant boost to loading and unloading productivity and faster vessel turnaround.

AVAILABLE ON MULTIPLE COMMUNICATIONS PLATFORMS

Bromma Fleet Doctor™, along with the other communications tools available in the Bromma productivity suite, will generate information that can be readily accessed on a variety of communications platforms. For example, the Fleet Doctor™ application will be able to be accessed on a notebook computer, a service technician’s iPad, tablet computers, computers in the maintenance department office or central terminal operations offices, or even on a service technician’s mobile phone.

Notes Bromma Vice-President of Marketing Lars Meurling:

 “Versatile, multi-platform access to Fleet Doctor™ information and work orders is part of our larger effort to make service as easy, simple and short as possible.”

TEST-DRIVING FLEET DOCTOR™

During 2011 Bromma Fleet Doctor™ will be made available to terminal customers on a trial basis. Bromma believes that the Bromma productivity suite will yield significant benefits for terminal customers, and represents the first wave of a new era of improved spreader fleet reliability.

“Productivity is everything to our terminal customers,” notes Bromma Vice-President and Commercial Director Vikram Raman. “In its essence Fleet Doctor™ is a tool to enable our customers to stay up and stay productive – a quick-start service tool that lets service technicians monitor decelerating spreader function, diagnose faults more precisely, fix faults faster, prevent future faults, and shorten fault duration. For the spreader fleets of the future ‘the doctor will always be in.’ Fleet Doctor™ is a way for our Bromma spreader fleet customers to stay in the green zone.”

“It is important to note while Port Botany’s container trade has been buoyed by higher imports due to the surging Australian Dollar, a solid trading performance by the state’s regional and rural export sector has also contributed to the result. “For the month of April 2011, total container volume through Port Botany was 162,205 TEU* – a record for the month of April.

“Total container trade through Port Botany reached 1.693 million TEU for the financial year to date (1 July 2010 to 30 April 2011) representing an increase of 5.7 per cent on the same period last year.

“These figures show that on an annualised basis, Port Botany’s container trade volumes are forecast to reach over 2 million TEU for the first time,” Mr Gilfillan said.

The contract includes an order for six STS45 separating twin-lift spreaders and an order for ten YSX40 yard spreaders. China, where Bromma already has more than 1,000 crane spreaders in service, remains a vibrant growth market.  

 Bromma has also won a new order to deliver two of its innovative STS45E spreaders to La Spezia Container Terminal in Italy. The STS45E, the industry’s first twin-lift, all-electric, separating ship-to-shore twin-lift crane spreader, is in service in every region of the world.

Bromma’s most recent yard all-electric orders include contracts for six YSX40E all-electric yard crane spreaders for Multi-Rio in Brasil and a contract for five second-generation YSX45E yard crane spreaders for delivery to the PD Ports terminal at the Northern Gateway project in northeast England. Bromma has delivered more than 1,700 all-electric yard spreaders to terminals around the world.

“Sydney Ports Corporation has recognised the importance of the bulk liquids trade and the existing Bulk Liquids Berth facility to the NSW economy,” Mr Gilfillan said today. “As the NSW economy continues to grow so does the demand for bulk liquids such as refined petroleum products, chemicals and gases for domestic and industrial use. “That’s why Sydney Ports is doubling the port’s capacity to handle these products by constructing a second bulk liquids berth (BLB2) at Port Botany. “The existing Bulk Liquids Berth at Port Botany was constructed in 1979 and is the only one of its kind – an open access, multi user berth for the import and export of chemicals, LPG and refined fuels in NSW. “This new $80 million facility will ensure that NSW has adequate berth capacity to satisfy future demands for the import and export of bulk liquids,” Mr Gilfillan said.