OREANDA-NEWS. July 23, 2012. In three years Maersk Line has saved almost USD 90 million in energy costs by measuring the performance of individual vessels thus raising awareness on consumption. Other business units follow suit.

In Maersk KPIs, Key Performance Indicators, have for years been a way of measuring how well one did in the past year. Since 2009 however, KPIs have also made their way on to the vessels in a mission to boost performance.

The vessel KPIs have evolved in a close dialogue between the vessels, Maersk Line Vessel Management and Maersk Maritime Technology, which is in charge of the Maersk Ship Performance System (MSPS).

In 2012 the overall scorecard consists of four parameters: Energy, safety, daily running costs and cooperation (best practice sharing). For the time being a dollar sign on concrete savings has been applied to the energy KPI only.

Following the first three years and a dedicated implementation by the crew and fleet groups, impressive savings can be traced: For example 160,000 tons of fuel has been saved as a result of higher propulsion efficiency. And in total, savings of USD 90 million have been made. These do not include savings from other energy initiatives such as trim optimisation or basic load reduction.

If you can't measure it, you can't control it Measuring has been a lead word all the way, Anup Rajan, Performance Manager in Maersk Line Vessel Management explains:

"If you can't measure something, you can't control it. If you can't control it, you can't improve it. It is essential to realize that the scorecards are only a valuable tool if they help facilitate decision making amongst stakeholders," he says.

After seeing these positive results of the KPI process on Maersk Line's own fleet, more than 150 vessels were upgraded with MSPS in the second half of 2011:

"We're confident that although we are introducing rather new standards in the industry, we will be able to drive similar performance improvements in the chartered fleet," says Flemming Bo Larsen, who is in charge of the "Energy Efficiency Optimization Drive" in Maersk Line.

Since 1 January the largest owners of chartered vessels have received scorecards and benchmark on energy. Each of the KPIs will be rated on a monthly basis and merged into an overall KPI score for each charter owner. More owners will be added on an ongoing basis.

As described below other business units are right now following suit in measuring vessel performance.

Vessel KPI in Maersk Supply Service

The motivation for Maersk Supply Service is more of an environmental nature. Although the fuel bill does usually not rest on Maersk Supply Service's shoulders, there is enough reason to save fuel: Firstly to meet the ambitious environmental targets and secondly to reduce maintenance cost on the engines. Currently approximately 70 vessels are reporting data through MSPS.

Vessel KPI in Maersk Tankers

Maersk Tankers has KPIs up and running on its entire owned fleet and is planning a roll-out to the chartered vessels as well. Energy, safety and financials are also in the focus.