Carnival Corp. Opens Seattle Fleet Operations Center

Image credit: Carnival Corp.

Miami-based Carnival Corporation has opened its second Fleet Operations Center in Seattle that will be used to provide real-time support for the company’s 102-ship fleet.

Carnival’s first Fleet Operations Center is located in Hamburg, Germany. A third will be added later this year when construction is scheduled to be complete on a Miami facility at the company’s headquarters.

The new Fleet Operations Centers, a first in the commercial maritime industry, will utilize a state-of-the-art tracking and data-analysis platform that enables real-time information sharing between Carnival Corporation ships and specialized onshore teams designed to support fleet operations. The proprietary system is intended to significantly improve communication from ship to shore and provide new capabilities for the safe passage of ships at sea, as well as help improve operational efficiencies and support overall environmental initiatives at Carnival Corporation.

The advanced system, which initially captures thousands of data points and provides real-time analytics for 28 distinct parameters for navigational safety from each ship, focuses on the following strategic areas to optimize safety, efficiency and overall fleet performance. These areas include nautical operations & safety, which icludes the capability to see real-time radar visuals, stability conditions, automation, the Safety Management and Command System, and webcams from each ship, along with GPS location, routing, ship conditions and weather data. Other areas include procedural optimization and efficiency, including speeds, navigational data and engine conditions, as well as sustainability, which includes fuel and energy usage, emissions, and water and waste management.

“Our teams have done a remarkable job in developing the most sophisticated and capable system in the cruise and commercial maritime industry for taking safety management to a completely new level, overcoming the hurdles faced with ships sailing in the middle of oceans around the world,” said Vice Admiral Bill Burke (ret.), chief maritime officer for Carnival Corporation. “With our new operations centers running our proprietary technology, both our ship and shoreside teams have greater-than-ever ability to ensure we are operating at safety levels that far exceed industry standards. We can now also access and analyze data that can significantly increase the operational efficiency of our ships, which is another major benefit.”

The new system, dubbed “Neptune”, utlizes cloud-based technology from Microsoft and has been in use at the Carnival Maritime Fleet Operations Center (FOC) in Hamburg, Germany, as announced in October 2015. Carnival Corporation has been piloting the system with its European cruise line brands in Hamburg and Southampton, England. Building on the system’s success, Carnival says it will continue rolling out the system this year to ships sailing in the U.S. and Caribbean, through its Fleet Operation Centers in Miami and Seattle.

“The new Carnival Corporation FOCs will provide an additional layer of support, where the shore-based analytics system will automatically generate alerts to help provide support in addressing any potential safety or weather-related issues across the fleet,” Carnival said in a press release on Monday. “Moving forward, the system’s ability to process and analyze “big data” in real time will enable Carnival Corporation and its brands to do predictive analysis with the potential to further improve safety and operations.”

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